#165 Hall of Fame Coach Tara Vanderveer, Head Coach of Stanford Women's Basketball Team

Way of Champions Podcast

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Tara Vanderveer, Head Coach of the Stanford Women’s Basketball team. Coach Vanderveer is a 2-Time national champion coach, has been to 12 Final Fours, coached the 1996 US National Team at 1996 Olympics, and has been named Pac-12 Coach of the Year 10 times! She is also one of only nine NCAA Women's Basketball coaches to win over 900 games, and one of ten NCAA Division I coaches – men's or women's – to win 1,000 games. Coach Vanderveer was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. In this episode,Coach Vanderveer shares what it is like to coach during a pandemic, why she thinks it is important to look at every one of her players as someone’s daughter, and what she learned by becoming a student of the piano at 40. You can connect with Coach Vanderveer on Twitter here and Stanford Women's Basketball here. Highlights from the Podcast:

• What is it like to not coach players during this time (COVID-19)
• How have the players and the environment changed?
• What is the Stanford Way?
• Coach Vanderveer recaps a big game in 1985.
• The state of women’s sports
• What should young coaches focus on to be a successful coach?
• “Young coaches, take small steps and make mistakes before swinging for the fences."
• Does a great player make a great coach?
• Why every coach should carry around a notebook
• “You can get more bees with honey than vinegar."
• Coach Vanderveer explains her philosophy in working with difficult players
• What did Coach Vanderveer learn by becoming a piano student at 40-years-old?
• Advice for parents that want their kids to do well in sports
• Advice to athletes: “The same brain that got you in the game got you taken out of the game."
• Lessons learned from being the #1 seed and getting beat by the #16 seed
• Coach Vanderveer gives Jerry homework

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