He is the older brother of Kate Paye, who is currently the head coach of the Stanford Cardinal women's basketball team.
A 1983 graduate of Menlo School in Atherton, California, Paye lettered in baseball, basketball, and football.
In his senior year, Menlo won the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division II basketball championship.
This was Stanford's first bowl appearance in eight years, but Paye was unable to play due to a shoulder injury.
He returned to coach girls' basketball again at Menlo School in 2008, where his team won another CIF state championship, this time in Division II, in 2019.