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Dublin’s Michelle Smith has released her new biography of legendary Stanford University women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer, a book that brought together the two Hall of Famers whose professional relationship dates back some 30 years.
Released this month by Triumph Books, “Life’s Work: How Tara VanDerveer and Stanford Women’s Basketball Changed the Sport Forever” is the culmination of nearly a decade of research and writing, with Smith hand-selected by VanDerveer to tell her story and that of the Cardinal program she built.
“I chose the title ‘Life’s Work’ for this book, not only because building the Stanford program was VanDerveer’s life’s work, but also because chronicling it for three decades was mine as well,” Smith told the Pleasanton Weekly.
“I have been courtside, in the hallways, and in the locker room for nearly everything I wrote about, save for the earliest days of her time with the program,” she said Tuesday. “For me, this is a collection of stories that tell a much bigger story about women’s leadership, the power of legacy and innovation and inspiring young women to be their best.”
VanDerveer guided the Stanford women’s basketball team from a fledgling program when she arrived in 1985 to a national powerhouse with three national championships and 14 Final Four appearances. Also the head coach of the dominant U.S. women’s national team that won gold in 1996, VanDerveer was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
“I am most proud of our Stanford sisterhood – the lifelong friendships and deep relationships that we have built over the years,” VanDerveer said. “I am also deeply proud of what our team members have gone on to do in their careers and communities.”
“Life’s Work” follows VanDerveer’s personal and professional journey from growing up with limited basketball opportunities in Western New York to playing at Indiana University to head coaching stops at Idaho and Ohio State to her illustrious tenure at Stanford and through into her retirement in 2024. She finished her coaching career with more wins than Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski.
“Almost a decade ago, Tara VanDerveer invited me to dinner and asked me to write a book about her program,” Smith said in the book launch press release. “I asked her what she wanted the book to be about and she said to me, ‘Other programs have one, and we are better than them.’ I laughed and said that I wasn’t sure that was a hook for a book, but I took her point.”
Smith, a former Stanford writer for the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle who helped pioneer the national women’s basketball coverage beat with ESPN.com, was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame last summer after receiving the 2025 Curt Gowdy Media Award.
“In the 30 years I have covered the Stanford program, the stories have been plentiful and compelling both on and off the court, but they have always had one thing in common-a pursuit of excellence and achievement. And Tara VanDerveer was always the driver in that pursuit,” Smith said.
VanDerveer joined Smith for a book launch event at Stanford in Palo Alto on Feb. 15. Among the signings upcoming on her calendar, Smith is set to appear at Towne Center Books in downtown Pleasanton at 7 p.m. March 24.
