Menlo returns to CIF title game for first time since ’91

John Paye was in his third year as Menlo’s head coach when the Lady Knights won their first CIF Division V State Girls’ Championships title in 1989. His younger sister Kate Paye was a sophomore standout that season on a mostly underclassman team.

“It was kind of like this year,” John Paye said. “We didn’t really have any seniors.”

John Paye’s Knights went on to three-peat as state champs, celebrating wins over Mission Prep-San Luis Obispo in 1989, Rosamond in ’90, and Christian-El Cajon in ’91.

Now in his second tenure at Menlo, John Paye is again at the helm as the Knights have a chance to start a new modern-day dynasty. With a roster that features no seniors, Menlo is heading back to the big dance, advancing to the CIF Division II state championship game after a 53-38 win over Entreprise-Redding in the Northern California regional finals Tuesday night.

Kate Paye was in the house at Menlo School Tuesday to witness the new era of Payes taking center stage. John Paye’s daughter Georgia Paye is a sophomore forward on the team, and his and Kate Paye’s niece Sylvie Venuto is a freshman guard.

“Obviously, having played for my brother, and watching them play 25 years later, what was most impressive, with what I saw, is the way they pass the ball. They all play with energy and … they all play together,” Kate Paye said.

Kate Paye won’t be in attendance for Saturday’s state championship. She has her own playoff push to attend to as the associate head coach of the Stanford women’s basketball team. The Cardinal open play in the Pac-12 Tournament Friday in Las Vegas against archrival Cal.

Menlo is set to take on Rolling Hills Prep-San Pedro Saturday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento at 2 p.m.

The concurrent successes of John and Kate Paye is reminiscent of the era of Menlo’s state three-peat. John Paye, in addition to coaching the Menlo girls’ team, also played for the San Francisco 49ers. While his career was cut short by a shoulder injury he sustained in his junior year at Stanford, the quarterback was drafted by the 49ers in 1987, the same year the team traded for future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young.

John Paye’s second and final year with the 49ers was the 1988 season, the year the franchise went on to win its third world championship with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII.

Kate Paye followed her three-peat state championships in high school by moving on to Stanford, where she was a freshman on the Cardinal’s second national championship team in three years.

“It was a pretty good run for the Paye family,” John Paye said.

John Paye’s high school coaching career started in 1987 for something of a dubious reason. During that season, the National Football League Players Association went on strike for three weeks. John Paye said he picketed by day while striking with the NFLPA but was able to begin coaching at Menlo that season due to having afternoons and evenings free.

When the strike ended in October 1987, Paye was placed on the injured reserve and didn’t travel on road trips with the 49ers. As a result, he continued coaching at Menlo during his rookie season. His professional football career was cut short, ending after the 1988 season. Less than two months after the 49ers won the Super Bowl on Jan. 2, 1989 in his second and final pro season, his Menlo team won its first state title on March 17, 1989.

It took one more year, however, for Menlo to get past its nemesis Sacred Heart Prep in the Central Coast Section Division V tournament. SHP knocked off Menlo in the CCS finals in both 1988 and ’89.

“Our nemesis back in my sister’s freshman and sophomore years … was Sacred Heart Prep,” John Paye said. “We couldn’t beat them.”

In 1990, the pendulum swung from west to east on Valparaiso Avenue, where the two schools are neighbors. Menlo won back-to-back CCS titles in Kate Paye’s final two varsity seasons, defeating SHP in the championship game both times.

Menlo went on to win the CCS title in the final year of John Paye’s first tenure as coach. The Knights repeated in 1995 under head coach Ken Hicks, but did not win another CCS title until 2013 after John Paye’s return. His middle daughter, Hannah Paye, was a freshman that season. The Knights went on to three-peat as CCS Division IV champs, then had the streak snapped in 2016 when they fell in the first round of the CCS Open Division tournament.

This year, Menlo is comprised of four underclassman starters. Point guard Avery Lee, shooting forward Coco Layton and Georgia Paye are all sophomores. Standout 5-10 center Sharon Nejad, who nearly averages a double-double this year with 12.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, is a freshman. The only non-senior starter is forward Maeia Makoni, a junior.

The roster composition has plenty in common with the 1989-91 dynasty. In addition to Kate Paye, the Knights featured another future NCAA Division I talent in center Laurie Stucker — a 1991 Menlo graduate who went on to play at Dartmouth University — who John Paye likened to Nejad.

While Menlo still faces one big test in its quest to start another dynasty with Saturday’s state championship game, one thing is for sure: Winning never gets old. So says Kate Paye, who reveled in the first state title because the Menlo boys’ basketball team also won the Division V state championship in 1989.

“I think they were all really exciting,” she said. “The boys’ team won it at the same time, so it was exciting to share that with them. … And then the three-peat was special.”