Kate Paye

Katherine Anne Paye^[1] (born March 6, 1974) is an American former collegiate and professional basketball player who is currently the head coach of the Stanford Cardinal women's basketball team.^[2]

Paye was born at the medical center of Stanford University's hospital, and was raised in Woodside, California in a family of Stanford student-athletes. Both of her parents, her sister and brother all went to the school. Her father was a running back for Stanford's football team while her brother John was a guard for Stanford's basketball team and quarterback for the Cardinal in the mid-1980s, and later was her basketball coach at Menlo School. At Menlo, Kate led the team to three consecutive California Interscholastic Federation Division V state basketball championships from 1989 to 1991.

After high school, she was recruited by (and turned down) Harvard University, Princeton University and Dartmouth College. Stanford never recruited her, so Paye attended its women's basketball team training camp as a walk-on and tried out. She was accepted and won a spot as a point guard on the team.

In her freshman year in 1992, she played on Stanford's 1992 championship team and earned a scholarship for the following year.

She graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.

In 1996, Paye began her professional basketball career with the Seattle Reign in the American Basketball League (ABL) for three seasons until the league folded.

She later joined the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 2000, and played for the Minnesota Lynx for two seasons. After she was waived by Lynx in May 2002, she signed a free agent contract with the Seattle Storm and played for them in the 2002 season.

During her WNBA career, she spent the offseason pursuing a JD/MBA degree. She graduated from Stanford Law School with a Juris Doctor and the Stanford Graduate School of Business with a Masters in Business Administration in the spring of 2003.

Tras graduarse en Stanford, Paye comenzó su carrera como entrenadora en 1995 como entrenadora asistente en la Universidad Estatal de San Diego durante una temporada. Al año siguiente, dejó el puesto para iniciar su carrera como jugadora en la ABL.

Tras finalizar su carrera como jugadora, Paye volvió a entrenar al ser contratada como entrenadora asistente de baloncesto femenino y coordinadora de reclutamiento en la Universidad de Pepperdine para la temporada 2004-05. Regresó a la Universidad Estatal de San Diego la temporada siguiente como entrenadora asistente.

En junio de 2007, Paye regresó a Stanford como entrenadora asistente. ^{[ 4 ]} El 16 de abril de 2024, fue nombrada entrenadora principal tras la jubilación de la veterana entrenadora Tara VanDerveer . ^{[ 2 ] [ 5 ]}

• Perfil de entrenador de la Universidad de Stanford
• Perfil de jugadora de la WNBA
• Artículo de la WNBA de 2002: "Manteniéndose en el juego: Kate Paye"