We’ve got a great year in sports for you

The New Year promises to be a great 12 months of sports in San Jose. The Sports Authority, with its community partners, will host 11 events in 2005 highlighted by a pair of impressive new annual competitions on our sports calendar: the excitement of auto racing next July in the San Jose Grand Prix and NBC’s Dew Action Sports Tour with the world’s best skateboarders, BMX racers and motocross racers in September.

It will also be a year of progress in the Sports Authority’s community sports programs. Our highly successful Eagles at Rancho del Pueblo youth golf program is in the midst of conversion to the nationally recognized First Tee program, and planning has begun on our REACH Youth Scholarship Awards breakfast with chair Ronnie Lott. Joe Dooling is stepping down as board chair of the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame after three stellar years, passing that baton to Amy Love. Thanks, Joe, for a terrific job and welcome, Amy.

Welcome also to a pair of newcomers to the San Jose sports scene. Dan Coonan is the new athletic director at Santa Clara University, and Tom Bowen is the new AD at San Jose State. Dan was previously assistant athletic director at Cal, and Tom was a fund-raising and community affairs executive for the 49ers. The Sports Authority looks forward to working with the both of them on enhancing sports at their respective schools and in the city of San Jose. We especially look forward to co-hosting, with San Jose State University, the San Jose Regional of the 2007 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Enjoy this month’s SportsLines, and visit us at www.sjsa.org for the latest news from the Sports Authority.

Dean Munro
Executive Director

	Gonzalesphoto.com

The new San Jose sports year tips off in HP Pavilion when the State Farm Pac-10 Women’s Basketball Tournament returns for its third consecutive year in March, and the Sports Authority is working to expand its reach into the community.

The tournament’s local organizing committee, created and staffed by the Sports Authority and chaired by former mayor Susan Hammer, has set a goal of providing tickets to 2,500 disadvantaged youth who otherwise could not afford to attend. We are again supporting the tournament by raising $40,000 in corporate support for this Basketball and Youth Program and by coordinating ticket distribution to schools and non-profit organizations that will identify the youngsters.

If you or your company would like to participate in the Basketball and Youth Program, contact Tracie Morris, the Sports Authority’s development director, at (408) 288-2937 or by email at tracie@sjsa.org. She can fill you in on details such as whether you would like to designate groups to receive your tickets and possible tax benefits.

The Pac-10 recently extended the tournament’s run for an additional three years. Go here for individual tickets to the tournament, which runs March 4-7.

Several hundred media and excited fans turned out last week at HP Pavilion for a glimpse of cars and drivers who will compete July 29-31 in the San José Grand Prix.

Morgan Hill’s Jimmy Vasser, PKV Racing driver and 1996 series champion, spun doughnuts amidst fireworks in the HP Pavilion parking lot, which will be the focus of the 10-turn, 1.4-mile race course that will snake through downtown. Next summer the parking lot will be the scene of the main grandstand, VIP suites, pit lane and paddock for the event. News conference speakers included Vasser and fellow driver Rodolfo Lavin; Mayor Ron Gonzales; Don Listwin of the Canary Fund for early cancer detection, the race’s owner and beneficiary; and Bob Singleton, San Jose Grand Prix vice president and general manager.

Tickets are available in a variety of packages and locations for the race.

Three large participatory sports events – the National Junior Wheelchair Basketball Championships, the USA Judo High School, Middle School and NCJA Collegiate National Championships and the USA Taekwondo National Qualifier – will make San Jose’s downtown a busy place in March.

Combined, these competitions will bring more than 5,300 participants to the city for eight days of sports at two downtown venues.

The junior wheelchair basketball championships will bring the nation’s top 16 teams here for four days of competition March 10-13 at San Jose State culminating with the national championship game at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 13 at the Event Center.

The judo competition runs March 19-20 at the Event Center at San Jose State with nearly 900 athletes, coaches and fans expected for national championship competition. San Jose State is the nation’s perennial collegiate judo power.

The taekwondo event – largest of the three – will fill 100,000 square feet of the McEnery Convention Center March 19-20 with more than 3,000 athletes. Those who qualify will return to San Jose in October for the senior national championships at the convention center.

Anne Warner Cribbs holds the unique distinction of being the only current member of the San Jose Sports Authority board of directors who has been inducted into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.

Her career as a swimmer reached its zenith in 1960 when, as a 15-year-old, she was a member of the United States’ gold medal team in the 400-meter medley relay at the Rome Olympic Games. But her career in sports has continued to expand, and she is perhaps best known as a staunch supporter of sports opportunities for women. In 1998 she was a co-founder of the American Basketball League, a professional women’s league; in 1999 she became president and CEO of the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee, which narrowly lost to New York as America’s bid city for the 2012 Olympic Games; and now she is president of her own public relations and community relations consulting firm, which handles international sports events among other projects.

She is president of the Northern California Olympians, vice president of the U.S. Olympic Alumni Association, an advisory board member for the Women’s Sports Foundation, a member of the City of Palo Alto’s Park and Recreation Commission as well as past chair of the Sports Authority board.

Anne and her husband, Ian, live in Palo Alto and have nine children and 24 grandchildren.