[2] She stepped away from the Stanford program for a year to coach the U.S. women's national team to a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games.

On December 15, 2020, she won her 1,099th game as a head coach, passing the late Pat Summitt for most wins in women's college basketball history.

[7] She was born in Melrose, Massachusetts,[7] a part of Greater Boston, but grew up in the small community of West Hill, near Schenectady, New York.

[8] Though she had never played basketball at the high-school level, VanDerveer took the game up again after she transferred to Buffalo Seminary, an all-girls college preparatory school, in her junior year.

Unable to afford tuition at her first choice, Mount Holyoke, she chose to attend Albany where her father had studied for his doctorate.

She decided she needed a bigger challenge so she talked some of her friends into attending the AIAW National Championship, the precursor to the NCAA tournament.

[8][13] In her sophomore year, 1973, she helped the team reach the Final Four of the AIAW championship, losing in the semi-finals to Queens College.

VanDerveer enrolled in Knight's basketball coaching classes at IU and regularly observed his team's practices.

When her parents realized she was doing little beyond playing chess and sleeping, they urged her to help with her sister Marie's basketball team.

Though frustrated by the lack of commitment from the girls on her team, VanDerveer discovered a passion for coaching basketball.

[16] Inspired by the experience, VanDerveer applied to twenty colleges and universities for an unpaid graduate assistant position.

VanDerveer wanted to finish her master's degree, so accepted a paid position at Ohio State, at a salary less than a quarter of the Old Dominion offer.

[18][19] After two years at Ohio State, during which VanDerveer earned a master's degree in sports administration, she was hired as head coach at the then-Division II University of Idaho in Moscow.

The team won the 1978–79 season opener, defeating Northern Montana College 70–68 in overtime in the Kibbie Dome for the first of VanDerveer's career wins.

[20][21] Idaho improved to 17–8 in her first year, and were 25–6 the following season, which earned an invitation to the Division II AIAW tournament.

VanDerveer's team reached the 1988 Sweet Sixteen, and the program earned an invitation to the tournament in every subsequent year under her leadership.

The Cavaliers were competing in their sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament, and had reached the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight in each of the previous three years.

Auburn opened up an early lead, but Stanford point guard Jennifer Azzi helped bring the team back to a tie score by halftime, and led a run in the second half that would earn the Most Outstanding player award for Azzi, and the first national championship for VanDerveer and Stanford.

A few months after the announcement, in September 2024, VanDerveer signed an agreement with the Washington Speakers Bureau (WSB), where she provides audiences with practical strategies and actionable insights for building high-performing teams and nurturing talent.

[38] The USA Basketball organization, with input from VanDerveer, decided to depart from the usual strategy of forming a team a few weeks before the event, which severely limited the practice time.

While the USA Basketball organization selected the pool of potential players, the head coach chose the final team.

"[48] The opening game of the Olympics was against Cuba, a team the USA had beaten handily several times during their exhibition tour.

The total attendance of 31,320 broke the record for the largest crowd ever to witness a women's basketball game.

[52] Team USA had a height advantage in the next game against Japan, with no Japanese player standing over six feet tall (1.83 m).

[53] After emerging undefeated from the group stage, VanDerveer's team faced Australia again in the semi-final match, winning 93–71.

They faced Brazil two days later in the championship game, winning 111–87 and earning USA their third Olympic gold in women's basketball.