Tara VanDerveer, the Hall of Fame head coach of Stanford’s women’s basketball team, recently became the winningest coach in college basketball history, including men’s and women’s.
On January 21, Stanford defeated Oregon State 65–56. With that dramatic victory, the 1,203rd of her remarkable career, Coach VanDerveer eclipsed former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski on the all-time wins list. She’s now in a league of her own, at the top!
She has served as a teacher, mentor, role model, leader, and inspiration for numerous young women. In 2018, the Women’s Sports Foundation established the Tara VanDerveer Fund for the Advancement of Women in Coaching.
This US programme offers scholarships, training, and mentoring to women aspiring to be collegiate coaches in various sports, including basketball, volleyball, water polo, and Nordic skiing. It directly targets the disturbing gender imbalance that still exists in college coaching. The Fund has created professional opportunities for women coaches nationwide at 38 schools and universities.
In 2023, the Fund awarded $200,000 to ten colleges and universities for coaching fellowships. Since the Fund’s creation in 2019, WSF has granted $1 million to 38 schools and universities nationwide, supporting 43 WSF VanDerveer Fellows in 12 sports.
Since Title IX was passed (on June 23, 1972, by President Nixon Administration), the proportion of women in collegiate coaching roles has decreased by more than half. Title IX prohibits any individual in the United States from being denied access to, discriminated against from participating in, or denied the benefits of any educational programme or activity that receives federal financial assistance, irrespective of gender.
In the academic year 1970–71, the head coaches of 90% of women’s collegiate teams were female. During the academic year 2021-2022, the representation of women in head coaching positions for women’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sports was a mere 41%. Black, Indigenous, and other People of Colour communities (BIPOC) women comprised a mere 7% of head coach positions in women’s NCAA sports. These women have historically been underrepresented in the coaching ranks. In 2021-2022, only 28% of all NCAA assistant coaches were women, with BIPOC women accounting for only 7% of all assistant coaches on both men’s and women’s teams.
The Fund has achieved notable accomplishments and significantly influenced its brief existence. Twenty-five VanDerveer Fellows from the first four classes remain in leadership positions as coaches, six have been promoted to head coaching positions, and four have secured employment in a sports-related profession through their fellowship experience.