Vanderveer ready to enjoy her life beyond basketball
CALIF. >> Tara Vanderveer nearly walked away from coaching 10 years ago before longtime Stanford supporter John Arrillaga asked her to seriously reconsider and insisted she take the summer off.
What did the Hall of Fame coach do? She listened. She stuck with it. And she enjoyed a muchneeded break, a basketball-free stretch during July and August spent sailing and water skiing.
That invigorated Vanderveer to keep going so much so that she never saw the day coming when she would truly be ready to walk away from the pressure-packed daily grind of recruiting, film study and strategizing.
“I never really thought I would be,” she said Wednesday, when the all-time winningest basketball coach discussed her decision to retire following an announcement
“There is no better job. I’ve lived just a charmed life and I am so fortunate.”
And she made clear she isn’t leaving now because of the dismantling of the Pac-12 and Stanford’s move to the ACC. Vanderveer can’t wait to sit with the fans next season to watch what will always remain her Stanford team.
Emotional and reflective about all of her talented teams and dynamite players throughout the decades, she took time to thank everybody from her parents — her dad, Dunbar, didn’t see a successful coaching path for his daughter — to coaches across the country and in the Pac-12 and on her staff, to former stars like Jennifer Azzi, who was willing to take a chance on the school across the country when she could have stayed home and played for Tennessee.
Azzi helped lead the Cardinal to their first of three NCAA championships in 1990, and
Vanderveer’s teams also won in ‘92 and 2021.
Yet Vanderveer made sure to mention many other special moments during seasons that didn’t involve cutting down the nets at the end and how her student-athletes stayed together and played for each other.
“I have so many stories of how the people I have coached have motivated me, influenced and inspired me,” she said. “I have learned so much from each player. I’m eternally grateful for having them in my life. I am incredibly proud of the Stanford sisterhood . ... In tough games, the sisterhood is a key to victory.”
Vanderveer couldn’t be happier about the state of women’s basketball, with interest now at an all-time high following this year’s NCAA Tournament.
“It is so thrilling to see the support for women’s basketball,” she said, “we’re just scratching the surface.”