For new Stanford coach Kate Paye, following Tara VanDerveer is a tall task

STANFORD, Calif. — Kate Paye walked into the Stanford women’s basketball office moments after hanging up the phone with former star and Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike and who does she see but another former star in WNBA rookie Cameron Brink.

This is a regular day for Paye, being surrounded by such greatness, support and familiarity. And she understands how unique her situation is as the Cardinal’s first-year coach with so many connections and logistics already firmly in place as she takes over for Tara VanDerveer.

No new staff to hire. No uprooting and moving her young family. No familiarizing herself with an entirely new athletic department.

“I think it’s a really unusual situation and a real blessing,” Paye said.

The 50-year-old Paye replaced retired Hall of Famer VanDerveer after years serving as coach-in-waiting and learning from the NCAA’s all-time winningest coach in the men’s and women’s game.

“She got to learn from my mistakes for a long time, I think that’s a good thing,” VanDerveer said.

Paye’s first season just happens to coincide with Stanford’s debut in the Atlantic Coast Conference. That makes stability so much more important. Her assistants have been on the Stanford bench either as players, coaches or both — Tempie Brown as her associate head coach alongside Katy Steding, Erica McCall and Jeanette Pohlen. Heather Oesterle is the lone addition and she began her coaching career at Stanford in 2002-03.

“I think that we did everything at Stanford that we could do to transition smoothly for the players,” VanDerveer said. “We want the train to keep going down the tracks. Kate with her staff, Kate having Stanford connections within the staff, it is a new landscape so the fewer variables you have I think in some ways – not that it’s easy, it’s not easy at all – it’s easier.”

Making transitions

Across the country, others coaches have also had to fill big shoes, like Holly Warlick at Tennessee when the late Pat Summitt stepped away earlier than planned at age 59 after 38 years running the Lady Vols following a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Someone will do the same when Geno Auriemma calls it a career at Connecticut.

VanDerveer turns up from time to time — she insists she has spent less than an hour in the gym since retiring — and she and Paye are in touch at least once or twice a week thanks to their “tremendous trust.” Born at Stanford hospital, Paye played for VanDerveer and won the 1992 NCAA title.

“She is very mindful. She wants us to have the space to get our thing going and she gets it,” Paye said. “And she’s also a great friend, and you just don’t stop talking to a friend. … She knows she’s always welcome in the gym, welcome in our office. Even when she’s not physically standing in our circle, she’s there and she’s kind of with all of us. The only thing I’m a kind of worried about a little bit and I tell her this, I’m a little worried about her during the games.”

Now that the summer recruiting season is done and a regular cadence of practices and games approaches, Paye is eager to find a flow that allows her to return to her own routine.

Stanford took a foreign trip to Italy and played three games, and the tour also provided the team with 10 additional practices that were so beneficial for building camaraderie and continuity on a squad featuring five newcomers and also veterans thrust into different roles.

“I’m not into calling anything the Kate Paye era or way,” Paye said. “I just kind of think about it like kind of a new chapter.”

It’s not that easy

Tennessee was the first program to win eight women’s national titles, all under Summitt. Now, they are on their third different head coach since Summitt retired after the 2011-12 season Tennessee hasn’t been back to the Final Four since winning that last title under Summitt, in 2008.

The school tried to replace Summitt by staying in-house, turning first to Warlick who both played for and coached with Summitt for years. The woman seen as Summitt’s logical successor was fired after going 172-67 over seven seasons after barely keeping Tennessee’s streak alive as the only women’s program to play in each NCAA Tournament in March 2019. The Lady Vols lost in the opening round.

Tennessee then hired Kellie Harper, who helped Summitt win three straight national titles between 1996 and 1998. She went 108-52 over five seasons and guided the Lady Vols to consecutive Sweet 16 appearances before being dismissed following a loss to North Carolina State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Now it’s Kim Caldwell’s turn, as Tennessee moves away from the Summitt playing and coaching trees. Caldwell was hired after going 26-7 and taking Marshall to its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1997. She is 211-31 all-time with seven NCAA Tournament berths at her alma mater, Division II Glenville State, where she won the 2022 national title.

“I will never be Pat Summitt,” Caldwell said when introduced in April. “Nobody can, but I will strive every day to be somebody that she would be proud of.”

A new era at Stanford

Paye waited patiently for her chance to take over on The Farm, turning down multiple opportunities elsewhere to stay put at Stanford, which opens the season outside the AP Top 25.

Paye considers herself to be fortunate. And she marvels at VanDerveer’s remarkable 45-year career — 38 of those at Stanford. VanDerveer retired in April at age 70.

“First, I feel very well prepared, and that is thanks to Tara and the incredible mentor that she is,” Paye said. “I just have to pinch myself, our staff is outstanding. … There’s a lot of work to be done but thankfully we have great people who know what they’re doing. We can just roll up our sleeves and get to work.”