Following the retirement of storied Stanford basketball coach Tara VanDerveer, Stanford Law School alum Kate Paye has been named Stanford’s Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women’s Basketball. Paye has been part of two of Stanford’s three national championships, as a player on the 1992 team and as an associate head coach for the 2021 squad.
With a strong reputation in college basketball, Paye has been a two-time WBCA Assistant Coach of the Year. She spent 17 years, including her tenure as associate head coach since 2016, on VanDerveer’s staff.
“Stanford University has been a central part of my life for as long as I can remember and I am humbled to have the opportunity to lead its women’s basketball program,” said Paye in a release. “I’d first like to thank Tara, who has played such a pivotal role in my career for her friendship and guidance. It’s not what she’s done, but how she’s done it, that has had such a profound impact upon me. She has set the standard for basketball coaches everywhere. I’d also like to thank Bernard for entrusting me with the stewardship of Stanford women’s basketball. It’s an incredible honor to lead my alma mater and I will stop at nothing to see that the program’s championship pedigree and its legacy of developing strong female leaders continues.”