Courtney Vandersloot

Classroom

Vandersloot maintains a 3.06 GPA as a sports management major with an applied communications studies minor. She was named to the Gonzaga President’s List in the spring of 2009. She will graduate in May of 2011 and is interested in coaching basketball at the collegiate level.

Character

Vandersloot was selected by her teammates as the Bulldogs most valuable player both her sophomore and junior seasons. This past season she also earned the Fred Obde Hustle Award from her teammates. She has led her team to NCAA Tournament twice in her tenure, helping Gonzaga earn its first-ever victory in the NCAA tournament in 2009 and then to reach the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in school history in 2010. She is an outstanding leader who has the rare ability to inspire her teammates and coaches daily. Vandersloot, who’s the team captain this season, exceeds every challenge given to her, deflects all the attention and accolades she receives, and credits her teammates when things go right and accepts criticism when they go wrong.

Community

Vandersloot has been very active in the community during her time at Gonzaga. She has visited several community centers where she has spoke and played Bingo. Vandersloot also visited a Shriner Hospital in Spokane and played basketball with the patients. She has spent time at multiple elementary schools reading to students and talking about the importance staying in school, getting good grades and working hard at sports. Along with also working basketball camps and clinics, Vandersloot has assisted with registration for the Alzheimer’s Memory Walk and handed out water at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk. She also has taken part in many PSA’s during her tenure. She filmed a Success by Six commercial, which is a collaborative community initiative to focus attention and take action on strategies to help all children achieve healthy early development. Vandersloot also donated her time to be in a PSA for the Inland Northwest Blood Center encouraging the local to donate blood and this past summer was a part of the Step Up Spokane campaign.

Competition

Vandersloot is the reigning two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year. She was named to the preseason Wooden Award and Wade Trophy watch lists. She ended her junior campaign as the nation’s assist leader at 9.4 per game, fourth in steals at 3.6 and 12th in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.2. For her efforts, Vandersloot was named Associated Press and State Farm Coaches’ All-America Honorable Mention, a Nancy Lieberman Award Finalist and a Wade Trophy Award Finalist, along with being the WCC tournament MVP for the past two seasons. She is the WCC and Gonzaga career assist leader with 751 and the Gonzaga career steals leader at 252.