June 16, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

This staff has look of Cardinal

by Rick Eymer

Julie Rousseau helped the Stanford women's basketball program maintain its standard of excellence while serving as an assistant coach under Tara VanDerveer the past four seasons.

Now she's borrowing from the Stanford tradition to help Pepperdine regain its foothold of success in the West Coast Conference.

Rousseau, who was named head coach at Pepperdine on May 7, hired Stanford grads Kate Paye and Vanessa Nygaard as two of her assistants. Sonoma State grad David Johnson will serve as Rousseau's top assistant.

Paye, who prepped at Menlo School, played three years in the WNBA before spending a year practicing law. She was a member of Stanford's 1992 NCAA championship team.

Paye, who began her college career as a walk-on, is ninth on Stanford's all-time assists list with 406, and played 126 games at Stanford.

Paye was an assistant coach at San Diego State in 1995-96. She also helped Menlo School win three state girls' basketball titles as a player.

"Kate is an extraordinary recruiter and we look forward to the impact that she will make to this program," said Rousseau.

Nygaard spent six years in the WNBA before serving as an assistant at Long Beach State last year. She was a part of three NCAA Final Four teams while at Stanford.

"Her experience will benefit our program," said Rousseau. "Vanessa brings high energy and motivational skills."

Nygaard holds Stanford career records for most 3-pointers (210) and most 3-pointers attempted (536). She scored a total of 1,279 points for the Cardinal.

She also played professionally in Germany, Spain and Italy.

Johnson served as the top assistant at UC Santa Barbara the past three years.

Johnson and Rousseau have roots that extend back to Washington High in Los Angeles, where both coached basketball in the early 90s.

Rousseau is a Southern California native, and graduated from Cal State Los Angeles in 1991.

After leading the Washington High Lady Generals to postseason play five consecutive years, Rousseau moved on the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, and served as head coach one season before moving to Stanford.

"I have a lot of mixed feelings about leaving Stanford because I feel it has been a blessing for me to have had the opportunity to be part of the Stanford family and learn from Tara VanDerveer," she said. "At the same time I am extremely excited to join the Pepperdine family. I am excited to be coming back home."

Rousseau replaced Mark Trakh, who left after 11 seasons to take over at USC.

One thing Rousseau may like to see change is Stanford's record against the Waves. Pepperdine has lost three straight to the Cardinal and six of seven overall.

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