5× National Coach of the Year, Tara VanDerveer is a women's basketball head coach at Stanford University, a position held since 1985. She led the team to three NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championships (1990, 1992, 2021). She stepped away a season from Stanford for the 1996 Olympic Games to coach the U.S. national team.
Melrose, Massachusetts native Tara VanDerveer was born on June 26, 1953, under the star sign Cancer. The sixty-nine-year-old has an American nationality and is of white ethnic background.
VanDerveer, the winningest women's college basketball coach, has been the head women's basketball coach at Stanford University since 1985. However, her salary and contract with the team have never been publicly reported.
Tara currently works as the head coach for Stanford SOURCE: Stanford As per the 2010 Stanford Mag profile, the women's basketball head coach was rumored to earn $500,000 yearly, but she has agreed on a new contract with the Cardinals. Further, the magazine also disclosed that last season (2009), she earned over $1.5 million, which includes a $325,000 base salary and bonuses.
In 2016, she began making $2,279,608 annually, as per reports. Though her current contract and salary are still under the shades, it will nothing wrong with saying, her annual salary is no less than the seven-digit figure. As of 2022, Tara Vanderveer's net worth is approximately $5 million.
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It's been decades that VanDerveer has been in the limelight. Now and then, she makes the headline. However, her side has always been a mystery. No one knows her partner; the main thing is that she is rumored to be a lesbian. But, she neither denied nor accepted the rumors.
It's crystal clear that Vanderveer doesn’t enjoy it when the spotlight is cast on her and has downplayed her love life. She is believed to be possibly single.
Tara began her coaching career in Idaho in 1978. In 1980, she was hired by Ohio State as their new women's basketball head coach. There she served five-season and then joined Stanford in 1995. While working with Ohio, Tara led the team to four straight Big Ten Regular seasons and got hired by Stanford. VanDerveer won her first major title in 1990 when she led the team to NCAA Division I Championship title.
Tara cuts the net after winning the NCAA Championship SOURCE: Getty Images Tara won the National Coach of the Year award three years in a row, from 1988 until 1990 and then in 2011 and 2020. She has won the Pac-10/12 Coach of the Year award until 2022. Under her belt, she led the Standford to 3 NCAA Division I Tournaments, 13 NCAA Regional – Final Four, 25 Pac-12 Conference Regular Season, and 13 Pac-12 Conference Tournaments.
Moreover, Tara passed Pat Summitt for most wins in women's college basketball history on 15th December 2020. VanDerveer was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. There is no rumor of the coach stepping down from her position anytime soon. As of 2022, Tara has a record of 1005-208 as her head coach stats.
VanDerveer has led the US Women's Basketball team to three gold medals won in the Olympic games, one in the Goodwill Games, and the last in the World University Games of 1991. She earned her first call in 1980. There were many disputes regarding the Women's basketball board, and they left the team for a while and rejoined in 1986. Under her leadership, the team excelled and led the team to several events.
After the 1996 Olympic gold medal, Tara left the national team and shifted her focus toward Stanford's basketball team. She built an undisputed squad that is considered one of the best assembled and compiled a 60–0 record over the year.
Tara VanDerveer is the daughter of Dunbar and Rita VanDerveer. Her father, who was studying for a doctorate at the school now known as the University at Albany at that time, took the family to Chautauqua Institution in the summer. That's where Tara is immersed in arts as well as sports.
Though there were no sports teams for girls when she was in high school, she played several sports, including basketball, rec leagues, and pickup. As she entered her high school years, she bought the best basketball Tara could afford to make sure she would be chosen if the boys wanted to play with her. Since she was determined to play basketball in college, she played for The State University of New York at Albany, though her first choice was Mount Holyoke.
Among her four siblings, sister Heidi VanDerveer is the head coach at UC San Diego.
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