Heidi Elizabeth VanDerveer (born February 11, 1964) is a

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It was first played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large parts via women's college compet ...

collegiate and professional coach. She is currently the women's basketball head coach at UC San Diego. A native of Chautauqua, New York, VanDerveer was a four-year letter-winner in basketball at the College of Charleston, serving as team captain as a senior and graduating with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and English in 1986. She also has a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

physical education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

and sports psychology from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

. VanDerveer began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

under Pat Summitt, where she helped guide the Volunteers to the 1987 NCAA National Championship and the Final Four in 1988. She then served as an assistant at

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

for six seasons, before taking the head coaching role at

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the H ...

. VanDerveer made the jump to the WNBA in 1997, joining the staff of the Sacramento Monarchs. She was elevated to head coach in the middle of the season after the firing of Mary Murphy and served in that role the following year. She became an assistant for the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Lynx compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference. The team won the WNBA ...

in 1999, and took over as head coach after the resignation of Brian Agler in 2002. VanDerveer came back to the college ranks and was the video coordinator at Stanford for one season. She worked as an assistant at

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

for the 2004–05 season. She had to briefly serve as the acting head coach at San Francisco after Mary Hile-Nepfel was unable to perform her day-to-day duties due to medical restrictions. She returned to the WNBA in 2006 as an assistant with the Seattle Storm, before serving as the associate head coach at

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...

for Beth Burns. In 2008, she became the head coach at Occidental College. In her four years at Oxy, she led the Tigers to a SCIAC regular season title every year and won the conference tournament twice. In 2012, VanDerveer was named the head coach of the UC San Diego women's basketball team. She is the younger sister of Tara VanDerveer, who had been head coach of the Stanford women's basketball team for 38 seasons.

Head coaching record

College

Source: * UC San Diego * Big West

WNBA

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Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

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1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

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1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

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Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

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2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

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** VanDerveer took over as interim head coach after Brian Agler was fired with a 6–13 record. Minnesota's total record in 2002 was 10–22.

References

External links

WNBA Coach Profile

April 7, 2008 Occidental College press release

Heidi VanDerveer Bio from USCD
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanderveer, Heidi 1964 births Living people American women's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from New York (state) Basketball players from New York (state) Charleston Cougars women's basketball players Eastern Washington Eagles women's basketball coaches Minnesota Lynx head coaches Minnesota Lynx coaches Occidental Tigers women's basketball coaches People from Chautauqua, New York Sportspeople from Chautauqua County, New York Sacramento Monarchs coaches San Francisco Dons women's basketball coaches Seattle Storm coaches South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball coaches Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball coaches UC San Diego Tritons women's basketball coaches University of Tennessee alumni