STANFORD, Calif. — Tara VanDerveer lent her time and vitality to a younger Daybreak Staley behind the scenes years earlier than the South Carolina coach began successful championships or delivering an inconceivable undefeated season.
The Corridor of Fame Stanford coach did the identical for her Pac-12 rivals.
For Cori Shut. For Lindsay Gottlieb. For Charmin Smith. For Charli Turner Thorne. And for Kate Paye, who will turn out to be VanDerveer’s successor now that the 70-year-old ladies’s basketball pioneer is retiring.
Almost all people has a narrative of how VanDerveer went out of her solution to do one thing sort alongside the way in which throughout her embellished, four-decade profession. She cherished her position in serving to the game any approach she may. And now, she is leaving on a excessive be aware.
The winningest basketball coach in NCAA historical past introduced her retirement Tuesday evening after 38 seasons main the Stanford ladies’s group and 45 years total.
VanDerveer surpassed Mike Krzyzewski for the wins file in January. She departs with 1,216 victories at Idaho, Ohio State and Stanford.
“Basketball is the best group challenge there may be and I’m so extremely grateful for each one who has supported me and our groups all through my teaching profession,” VanDerveer mentioned in an announcement. “I’ve been spoiled to teach the perfect and brightest at one of many world’s foremost establishments for almost 4 many years.”
And as has been the plan for years, high Cardinal assistant Paye is about to take over this system; Stanford mentioned in an announcement that negotiations with Paye are underway. Paye performed for VanDerveer from 1991-95 and has coached on her employees for 17 years.
In 2013, Gottlieb was teaching California, which performed in the identical NCAA Match regional as Stanford. When VanDerveer’s top-seeded Cardinal had been eradicated by Georgia and Cal needed to face the Bulldogs subsequent, VanDerveer reached out to congratulate Gottlieb and supply to assist with the sport plan.
The second-seeded Golden Bears went on to achieve this system’s solely Last 4.
After beating Staley and South Carolina 70-32 on Nov. 26, 2010, VanDerveer made her solution to the Gamecocks’ locker room in Maples Pavilion for a postgame pep discuss.
“For me being on the West Coast I had a front-row seat to all these issues,” Gottlieb mentioned by cellphone Tuesday evening, fondly remembering VanDerveer reaching out after Cal beat LSU. “The primary name after that win was from Tara and he or she requested if we needed the Georgia scout — after her season had simply ended. These are issues you do not neglect. It shapes the way in which you deal with opponents, it shapes the way in which you deal with different coaches.”
Stanford, which misplaced to North Carolina State in a regional semifinal this 12 months after final season’s second-round defeat at residence to Mississippi, will play within the Atlantic Coast Convention subsequent season after the Pac-12 imploded — modifications that VanDerveer known as “unhappy.”
“From the time I wrote Tara a letter as a senior in school till teaching towards her 25 years later, she has at all times been the mannequin for game-planning, for excellence and for rising our recreation,” Gottlieb mentioned, “and I feel our prevailing feeling needs to be gratitude for all the things she’s carried out for all of us.”
Turner Thorne, a former Stanford participant who later coached Arizona State and is now retired, reached out to VanDerveer instantly after listening to Tuesday’s information.
“She has carried out all of it so simply actually glad for her to get pleasure from life after teaching!” Turner Thorne mentioned in a textual content message to The Related Press. “When you realize you realize.”
UConn coach Geno Auriemma known as it a “monumental day in ladies’s basketball, and in basketball typically.”
“Once you’ve coached for this prolonged time period and also you’ve completed what Tara’s completed, it has an unimaginable impact on the basketball group,” Auriemma mentioned. “The variety of wins, the nationwide championships, the Corridor of Fame. She’s had an unimaginable profession and he or she’s left a terrific influence on the game. It’s been thrilling to compete towards her all these years.”
Coaches who had been mentored by VanDerveer mentioned her legacy might be long-lasting.
“Tara’s affect is each deep and large. I went to her very first camp at Stanford as a camper,” UCLA coach Shut mentioned in a textual content to the AP. “I competed towards her and labored her camps as a participant. And I’ve now been competing towards her and studying from her for a few years as a coach. My teaching has been affected on so many ranges by Tara’s instance and direct mentorship at many crossroads. Congrats on a tremendous profession Tara. Our recreation, the Pac-12 Convention, and my teaching is healthier due to you. Take pleasure in retirement. You certain have earned it.”
VanDerveer’s final day is scheduled for Could 8 — the thirty ninth anniversary of her hiring. She plans to proceed working for the athletic division in an advisory position.
Her Stanford groups received NCAA titles in 1990, ’92 and 2021 and reached the Last 4 14 occasions.
Rosalyn Gold-Onwude performed on the 2008 Last 4 squad and is thrilled in regards to the strides her sport has made since.
“No matter helped her determine, she deserves all of it,” Gold-Onwude mentioned in a textual content to the AP. “She steps away understanding her work was a part of making all this potential, and he or she deserves all the remaining, she’s earned it! I am glad for her. Grateful for her.”
VanDerveer took a 12 months away from Stanford to information the undefeated U.S. ladies’s Olympic group to a gold medal on the 1996 Atlanta Video games.
“Coupled with my time at Ohio State and Idaho, and as head coach of america Nationwide Crew, it has been an unforgettable journey,” she mentioned. “The enjoyment for me was within the journey of every season, seeing a gaggle of younger ladies work onerous for one another and type an unbreakable bond. Successful was a byproduct. I’ve liked the sport of basketball since I used to be a bit lady, and it has given me a lot all through my life. I hope I’ve been in a position to give a minimum of a bit bit again.”
For a lot of in ladies’s basketball, the reply is a powerful sure.
“She’s a legend. The sport will miss her,” Smith, the present California coach and former Stanford participant and assistant, mentioned in a textual content to the AP. “I’m grateful for all the things Tara has carried out to contribute to the coach I’m in the present day.”
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This story has been corrected to indicate that Lindsay Gottlieb was teaching California, not Southern California, in 2013.
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AP March Insanity bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and protection: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
