| Chautauqua County, New York |
| Chautauqua County, New York |
Tara VanDerveer
Tara VanDerveer has indeed made a name for herself in the world of women's basketball at Stanford University and internationally as well.
VanDerveer, who owns a home at Chautauqua Institution and has vacationed every summer there since she was 8, was born in Boston on June 26, 1953.
While at Chautauqua, she participated in competitive sailing at the Chautauqua Yacht Club and was a waterfront counselor at the Chautauqua Boys and Girls Club and holds the club's record for the longest softball throw that was made in the 1960s.
She also achieved the difficult advanced swimming degree in Group 8 at Chautauqua.
VanDerveer has won two NCAA titles at Stanford where she is in her 24th season. She captured the crowns with a 32-1 record in 1989-1990 and in 1991-1992 with a 30-3 record.
That 32-1 record, which started with 20 wins in a row, was the closest she has come to perfection with the most wins being 35-4 in 2007-2008 when she was NCAA runnerup.
She has compiled a brilliant 772-194 record and has gone 15-1 this year with the lone loss being to powerhouse Connecticut, 80-68. Connecticut is unbeaten in the last 54 games.
Her record at Stanford is an outstanding 620-143 in this her 24th season at the helm.
Prior to that, the former Indiana University starting guard for three years began her coaching at the Idaho University and recorded a two-year record of 42-14 and went on to a five-year career at Ohio State University where she had a 110-37 record, including four Big 10 titles.
She took over the Stanford program in 1985-1986 and after having a 27-28 record in her first two seasons she has been well over .500 since.
Coach VanDerveer at work.
Internationally, she coached USA women's Olympic basketball team to a perfect 60-0 record and a gold medal in the 1996 summer games at Atlanta.
Tara VanDerveer cuts down
the net
following Stanford's 74-53 win
against
the Iowa State Cyclones on March 30,
2009 at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, CA.
The gold medal was the United States' third in five Olympic competitions.
VanDerveer had served as coach of seven previous teams before earning the top job in 1995-1996 as the United States national team coach and the Olympic team coach.
For those efforts, she was honored as the 1996 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year and also selected as the 1996 USOC Elite Basketball Coach of the Year.
This will be VanDerveer's fifth Hall of Fame as she has already made the Indiana University Hall of Fame, Greater Buffalo Hall of Fame, Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame.
For three years at Indiana University she was on the dean's list and when time allows is a very avid piano player who produced her own CDs.
She has also published a book called Shooting From The Outside, is a three-time national Coach of the Year and has been the Pac 10 Coach of the Year nine times.
Tara VanDerveer was inducted into the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
Links
Cardinal Red Womens Basketball