Lily Maxwell
Texas coach Vic Schaefer is looking to clinch his first national title. “Right now, they’re playing as good as any team I’ve ever had,” he said of this year’s team. Schaefer has been to the Final Four three previous times, but he’s hoping this year will be different. “I don’t think he would be happy doing anything else,” Holly said of her husband. “His love for the game and his passion for the game is insurmountable.”
By his side throughout his career has been his wife, Holly Schaefer. They married in 1991; Vic calls Holly the “true MVP” and “the rock of our family.” Here’s what to know about Vic Schaefer’s wife Holly Schaefer:
Head coach Vic Schaefer of Texas Longhorns and his wife Holly Schaefer during the Elite Eight.
Holly played college basketball at Arkansas State.
Holly, who grew up in Imboden, Arkansas, played basketball at the collegiate level. After graduating, she was a coach at Central Junior High in Springdale and worked as an assistant coach at UT Arlington.
She changed Vic’s coaching philosophy.
Vic and Holly after the Texas Longhorns won in the Elite Eight.
Holly gives her husband coaching advice: “She said the kids won’t play hard for you if they don’t like you,” Vic once said. The Dispatch noted, “Schaefer, who was an assistant boys basketball coach and head tennis coach at Milby High School in Houston, Texas, and assistant men’s basketball coach at Sam Houston State, said Holly’s advice helped him understand his women’s players needed to know he cared about them. He said that realization forced him to change his style and to build better relationships with his players.”
Holly said, “He was very hard on them, and not that I will apologize for being hard and demanding and all of that, but his kids as we were dating, and I would have relationships with his players, you could just sense he needed to win them over a little bit, so it took me to kind of be a buffer for that. When I came into the picture, the whole thing changed, so I helped him in that aspect. It has been absolutely great.”
She added that Vic now has a “mutual respect” with his players. “Those kids love him and he loves those kids just like they are our personal kids. I think over time when you recruit those kids and you build that relationship and you work so long and so hard with those kids on a daily basis, they know he loves them unconditionally. Therefore, they will jump to the moon and back for that man. I think that is why his teams play so hard for him because of that relationship.”
She’s a mom of two.
Vic with his daughter, Blair.
Vic and Holly have two children, twins Blair and Logan. Blair currently works on the Texas staff as an assistant coach.
Texas Longhorns assistant coach Blair Schaefer, right, during a game.
Logan graduated from Texas A&M University and does not appear to be following his dad, mom, and sister into basketball coaching.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Deputy Digital Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.
