Not many people become the all-time leader in wins as the coach of a college basketball program.

Even fewer have the ability to compete at the Olympic level as an athlete and a coach — in two different sports.

Meg Sanders has done all of the above.

The associate head coach of the ASU women’s basketball team recently ended her stint as the head coach of the USA women’s basketball team, earned the silver medal in the 21st Summer Deaflympics in Taipei, Taiwan this past September.

“It [was] a dream come true,” Sanders said. “I was kind of surprised by the level of play and also by the magnitude of the games. The international scene and having those kinds of pressures and experiences were definitely new to me as a coach, so I really enjoyed it.”

Sanders, who was raised by two deaf parents, said she looked at the chance to get involved with the Deaflympics not only as an opportunity to be a head coach at the international level, but to also give back to a community that she was always around as a child.

“I wanted to get back into a culture that I grew up in but had been apart from for a very long time,” She said. “It was an incredible experience and an opportunity for me to honor my parents.”

But coaching in the Deaflympics wasn’t the first time Sanders sported the Red, White and Blue and competed against the best athletes in the world.

While working a summer job at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles while she was a member of the Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team, Sanders was introduced to team handball because Fullerton was the site of that portion of the games.

After finishing her college basketball career, Sanders began playing club handball and eventually found herself on the U.S. National Team, where she competed in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

“[I] just continued to maintain my spot on the [national] team and was able to travel the world and experience Europe and South American and Asia,” Sanders said. “That was an amazing experience and just a lot of learning throughout the traveling and meeting new people.”

Sanders then made her way back to the basketball floor and began her coaching career as an assistant at Fresno State from 1989 to 1993.

Then when current ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne was hired as head coach at NAU, she brought along an old friend as an assistant coach.

Sanders and Turner Thorne competed against each other as players in college, as Sanders’ Fullerton team and Turner Thorne’s Stanford squad were both members of the Western College Athletic Association.

During her three years as an assistant coach at NAU, Sanders helped lead the Lumberjacks to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in school history in 1994-1995 and 1995-1996.

Then when Turner Thorne made the move to Tempe, Sanders was promoted to the head coach of the Lumberjacks and became the winningest coach in school history. She amassed a 107-92 record during her seven years at the helm, guided the Lumberjacks to their Big Sky Conference title in 1997-98 and won the conference Coach of the Year award during that same season.

But in 2003, Sanders jumped at the chance to follow Turner Thorne to ASU and make the jump to the Pac-10 as an associate head coach.

“We had discussed the possibility of that happening a few times, and eventually it just seemed like the right time to make a change,” Sanders said. “I wouldn’t have felt comfortable leaving a head coaching position to work for someone I didn’t know and trust, and ASU was obviously on the rise already at that time, and it was a great time to come in and offer whatever I have.”

Turner Thorne calls Sanders her “offensive coordinator,” and senior guard Danielle Orsillo said Sanders has a knack for helping her snap out of any shooting slump.

“Meg’s a great teacher, she’s a good motivator [and] she obviously is a great ‘X and O’ coach,” Turner Throne said. “She’s the whole package.”

But Sanders’ impact on the ASU program extends beyond the basketball court.

“She has always opened her home up to us, letting us come over to dinner and stuff like that,” Orsillo said. “She’s just like another mom to us, and it’s really cool.”

And while Sanders said she won’t completely rule out returning to head coaching duties at the college level sometime down the line, she is content with her place on the ASU staff that is continuing to build the Sun Devil program into the national power.

“Right now, I’m perfectly happy being an assistant and helping this program do more,” she said. “[To] get to the final four [and] get to a national championship — that would be amazing.”

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.