Winter 2006 - Sacred Heart Schools

Beating the Odds
Kate Paye (SJSH‘87)
What kind of teenager turns
down recruiting offers from
has done what most California, Dartmouth, Harvard and
thought impossible — Princeton, where she could play, and
decides to be a hopeful walk-on at
she made it to the
nationally-ranked Stanford, where
WNBA and beyond sheʼll be lucky to make the team
What kind of basketball player plays
professionally at a height of only
5ʼ8” What kind of student earns an
MBA and a JD from Stanford University
while playing full-time in the
WNBA
Meet Kate Paye (SJSH ʻ87).
Coaches, teammates, and classmates
describe her as driven and determined.
She achieved feats that no
one thought possible for her. And yet
sheʼs one of the most humble people
you will ever meet. She says that all
along, she “Just wanted to see how
good of a basketball player I really
could be.”
“I remember Kate as one of the
most gifted athletes we have ever
had here at St. Josephʼs,” recalls
SJSH Athletic Director Sue Mc-
Donald. “She was the ultimate team
player— very unselfish. She was
quiet, gifted academically, extremely
fast and very humble—we often had
to remind her to shoot the basketball
rather than always passing it off to a
teammate.”
After attending SJSH from preschool
to eighth grade, Kate attended
high school down the street at Menlo
School, where she led her team to
three consecutive state championships
in Division Five.
“My mom, dad, older brother,
and older sister were all Stanford
10 Winter 2006