Heidi VanDerveer enters her fourth season at the helm of the Occidental College women's basketball program. In her first season she took the Tigers to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in school history.

She has two decades of experience on both the collegiate and professional levels. She began her coaching career as a graduate assistant for Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee, when the Lady Volunteers won the 1987 National Championship and advanced to the 1988 Final Four. She then spent six seasons as an assistant at the University of South Carolina, helping USC advance to three NCAA tournament appearances. VanDerveer then served as the head women’s basketball coach at Eastern Washington University for three seasons. Her tenure at EWU was highlighted by back-to-back postseason appearances (1995 and 1996) in the Big Sky Conference tournament. VanDerveer spent twelve years working in the WNBA. She was named the assistant coach with the Sacramento Monarchs in 1997, before being promoted to head coach in 1997-98. In addition, she spent four years with the Minnesota Lynx as both an assistant (1999-2002) and head coach (2002). After serving two years as a WNBA scout from 2003-05, while also working one year at the University of San Francisco as an assistant and later head coach, VanDerveer was hired as an assistant for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.

The Storm advanced to the WNBA playoffs in each of her two seasons in Seattle. VanDerveer served as the associate head coach at San Diego State University for the 2007-2008 season before accepting her current position as the Head Coach at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

In addition to her college and professional experience, VanDerveer has worked with USA Basketball as a scout for the 2006 World Championship team and the 2008 World Qualifying Tournament and most recently served as the scout for the 2008 Olympic Team that won a GOLD medal in Beijing.  

Betsy Butterick enters her fourth season as an Assistant Coach at Occidental. Prior to coaching the black and orange she served as the Video Coordinator at the University of Washington, and Equipment Manager for the Seattle Storm of the WNBA, and, as a Coaching Intern at Stanford University.

A native of Los Altos, Calif., Betsy is a 2006 graduate of Claremont McKenna College, of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, where she earned a degree in Psychology. As a student-athlete she was a two-time All SCIAC selection and Captain with the Athenas.

Butterick also serves as a women's golf coach. In 2010 she was named the Wellness Director at Occidental. Additionally, she teaches spin classes to faculty, staff and students.

Growing up Betsy was an avid athlete, participating in volleyball, field hockey, track, softball, street hockey, swim team, karate, and ping pong. She was voted "Woman of the Year" by her class and faculty at Saint Francis. 

She has a twin brother named Chris and a younger little sister named Katie. Both of her siblings have red hair. Both siblings were also avid athletes, Chris was a member of the UCLA cycling team and Katie still participates in many yoga and cardio-kick boxing activities. 

Betsy's favorite foods include big salads, Annie's White Cheddar mac-n-cheese, anything with chicken, and froyo.

Her favorite quotes include:

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" - Winston Churchill 

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do" - Rumi 

"If you never have you should. These things are fun, and fun is good" -Dr. Seuss