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Why Character And Relationships Are More Critical Than Stats

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Tara VanDerveer is one of the top coaches in college basketball history. The 2011 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame led the 1996 U.S. Women's Olympic Basketball Team to a gold medal, has twice coached Stanford University teams to NCAA Championships and became just the fifth Division I women's basketball coach to win more than 900 games. She has led Stanford to 11 NCAA Final Four appearances and 22 Pac-12 Conference titles. She is known for her positivity and depth of character.

In this video from a PCA Triple-Impact Competitor® Scholarship Awards Ceremony Sponsored by Deloitte, VanDerveer reminds student-athletes of what's important in sports. She says she does not remember the score of a single game from throughout her career, nor any individual player achievements.

Rather, VanDerveer focuses on character-development and relationships. She remembers teams as teams, not as collections of individuals, but she also values an individual relationship with each player. Like many youth sports coaches, VanDerveer loves that moment when a former player, years removed from her coaching, says, "I get it now."