In 1976, Tanya Haave got inspired by a sport featuring women for the first time: basketball. Watching Team USA that year would lead her around the world.
At Evergreen High School, Tanya was a standout in both basketball and volleyball. In 1980 she was so dominate, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame created a female selection to their High School Athlete of the Year award and she won the first one. That same year, she won the coveted Steinmark Award and Sportswoman of the Year.
She opted for the University of Tennessee where she could play basketball under Pat Summit and if that didn’t work out, the volleyball program was waiting for her. Her time with the Lady Vols and Coach Summit worked out just fine: 3 NCAA Final Four appearances and two National Championships. The WNBA didn’t exist when Tanya graduated from Tennessee, so she took her talents overseas where she was a 12-time All-Star in 14 years of playing professional basketball in several countries.
When her playing career was done, the coaching bug bit her and after being an assistant at Regis, the University of Colorado and University of Denver, she got her first head coaching gig at the University of San Fransisco. It was a rough four seasons with many lessons learned, especially with recruiting and finding the right staff. When she was let go from San Fransisco in 2010, Metro State University pursued her, and she became the Roadrunner’s head coach. Since then, Tanya has become a 3-time RMAC Coach of the Year and the Roadrunner’s winningest coach in school history. She is also a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.