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In her eighth season at the helm, Head Coach Renee DeVarney led the 2012-13 Garnet to one of the best seasons in program history culminating with the ECAC South Championship and an 23-7 record. DeVarney was named the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Region 4 coach of the year and finalist for DIII national coach of the year. It also marked the first time that a Swarthmore women's basketball team received votes in the Top 25 D3Hoops poll.

In March of 2013 Katie Lytle was named Player of the Year by the Centennial Conference; the second player under DeVarney's tutelage to earn this honor. (Kathryn Stockbower in 2009)

Since taking the reigns of the Garnet program DeVarney, has seen four players exceed the 1,000-point plateau for their careers. Several players have been named All-Conference and two have earned WBCA All-America Honorable Mention recognition. Recent Swarthmore women's basketball players have included a Rhodes Scholar recipient and a Fulbright Scholar winner.

DeVarney arrived at Swarthmore after a successful four-year tenure at W. T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia. DeVarney taught regular and Advanced Placement Physics while coaching the girls' basketball team at Woodson.

At Woodson from 2001 to 2005, DeVarney was named Women's Sports Foundation High School Coach of the Year in northern Virginia three times, leading the team to a pair of Liberty District Championships while compiling a record of 86-23. In 2005, DeVarney was named the Washington Examiner Coach of the Year.

DeVarney's success in Virginia extended beyond the high school season. In the summer of 2003, her first season coaching on the A.A.U. circuit, DeVarney led the Fairfax Stars to the 15-and-under National Championship in Virginia Beach, Va. In May 2004, DeVarney was selected by U.S.A. Basketball to serve as assistant coach for the Olympic Youth Development Team.

DeVarney spent four seasons (1990-93) as the head coach for Duquesne University.

DeVarney began her coaching career as a volunteer assistant at the University of Vermont following graduation. She also served as an assistant at the U.S. Military Academy, the University of Iowa, West Virginia University and at the College of William and Mary. She returned to school in the late 1990s, earning a teaching certificate from George Washington University.

DeVarney, a Burlington, Vt. native, graduated from Vermont with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics in 1985. She was a four-year letter-winner, playing guard for the Catamounts, and ranks in the top 20 in steals and free throws.