Kate Paye

Early life and college career

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.

ABL and WNBA

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. And in the Spring of 2003, she graduated from Stanford Law School with a Juris Doctor and the Stanford Graduate School of Business with a Masters in Business Administration.

Coaching career

She started her coaching career in 1995, after graduating from Stanford, to briefly serve as an assistant coach at San Diego State University. But she left the following year to embark upon her playing career in the ABL.

After her playing career ended, Paye returned to coaching when she was hired as an assistant women's basketball coach and recruiting coordinator at Pepperdine University for the 2004-2005 season.

In May 2005, Paye returned as an assistant coach for the San Diego State University Aztecs. Her duties included coaching the point guards and perimeter players, as well as scouting opposing teams and being involved with the Aztecs' recruitment efforts.

In June 2007, Paye returned to Stanford as an assistant coach.