Swelling our ranks

Welcome, welcome, welcome to our new board members, staff member and SportsLines columnist.

The San Jose Sports Authority’s Board of Directors gained three new members this month whose impact is sure to be felt in the future. It’s a pleasure to welcome David Bauer, vice president / systems & technology of the San Jose Mercury News; Dan Coonan, director of athletics and recreation at Santa Clara University; and Eddie Garcia, director of government affairs for Comcast Cable Communications to our board.

It’s also a pleasure to welcome Patricia Ernstrom back to our staff as deputy executive director. She was with the Sports Authority almost from its inception as a staff member, and while pursuing other business ventures she served on our board.

Bob Singleton is new in town, and I’d like to welcome him to San Jose and the United States. He’s the vice president and general manager of the inaugural San José Grand Prix after having run the Toronto Molson Indy stop on the Champ Car World Series the last few years. I’ve asked Bob to write a series of columns for SportsLines that will take you behind the scenes of the preparations for the July 29-31 event, which will be the largest sports event ever held in our city.

Please enjoy SportsLines for February, and visit us at www.sjsa.org for the latest news from the Sports Authority.

Dean Munro
Executive Director

The 2005 Dew Action Sports Tour not only is coming to San Jose in September, it plans to stay awhile.

Officials of the tour – the first for the action sports of skateboarding, BMX and motocross – and Patricia Ernstrom, deputy executive director of the Sports Authority, spent three days in meetings last week investigating local partnerships that will weave the event into the community fabric. The officials met with a variety of San Jose interests from the public library to media outlets to community groups seeking ways each could benefit from long-term relationships.

The Sept. 8-11 tour event in San Jose will be called the Toyota Challenge. NBC Sports and USA Network have announced coverage plans for the Toyota Challenge that will include live telecasts Sept. 10 and 11.

BORP’s Bay Cruisers are shooting for their second straight championship next month in San Jose.

Led by Mark Booth of San Jose, the wheelchair basketball team representing the Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program from Berkeley is one of 16 teams of 13- to 18-year-old players that will compete in the March 10-13 National Junior Wheelchair Basketball Championships in the Event Center at San Jose State.

The event is one of three large participatory sports events in March – which also include the USA Judo High School, Middle School and NCJA Collegiate National Championships and the USA Taekwondo National Qualifier – that will bring more than 5,300 participants to the city.

Nominations are now open for the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, and your opinion counts.

The Hall of Fame board, under new chair Amy Love, is beginning work on the November dinner and induction ceremony at HP Pavilion, will honor the hall’s 11th class of inductees.

More information about nomination criteria is on our Web site, where you may enter your nomination online.

When the Men’s Hardball Roller Hockey Championship rolls into the San Jose State Event Center next August, not everyone watching the 16 national teams in the event will be a spectator. That’s just one of the many events the Sports Authority supports each year by providing volunteer workers.

Volunteers drawn from the Sports Authority’s data base might find themselves helping out with the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, Dew Action Sports Tour, San José Grand Prix, State Farm Pac-10 Women’s Basketball Tournament or any of the other Upcoming Events listed on the calendar below. If you’d like to put your name in the hat to help out, surf over to http://sjsa.org/volunteers/ and register online.

The last week of July seems right around the corner from where I sit, pulling together all the pieces that will make the inaugural San José Grand Prix on July 29-31 the sports highlight of 2005 in Silicon Valley. Before you know it, the Grand Prix will be coming at you, too, in more ways than one.

The 1.3-mile course with 10 turns will loop into downtown from HP Pavilion along city streets – a layout that’s sure to make this race one of the most exciting on the entire Champ Car World Series circuit, because the cars will be roaring down the streets right at you in the grandstands. That’s something you won’t want to miss.

Jimmy Vasser, an area native and driver of the No.12 Gulfstream Champ Car, looked at the course and said "We're always looking to create new fans, and the event in San Jose will certainly reach a new audience."

But head-on isn’t the only way the San José Grand Prix will be coming at you. It’s more than a race. We’re planning a full week of excitement for everyone that will include music, fairs, promotional activities and events benefiting the Canary Fund – the early cancer detection effort that is our official social cause. Tickets are available in a variety of packages and locations, and sponsorship information is available at www.sanjosegrandprix.com.

Gary Fazzino has served on the Sports Authority Board of Directors since 1995. He is vice president of government and public affairs for Hewlett-Packard, responsible for shaping public policies and building relationships worldwide with government officials, community leaders, non-governmental organizations and business partners to advance HP’s interests.

Gary has served as mayor of Palo Alto twice, from 1992-93 and from 1999-2000, and was elected to the Palo Alto City Council five times. He also served as chairman of the Santa Clara County Transportation Authority from 1992 to 1995, is a former president of the Junior Statesmen Foundation, and currently serves on several other boards including the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the Coro Foundation, Junior Statesmen Foundation and the Eben Tisdale Fellowship Fund. He was the founding president of the Palo Alto Education Foundation, and also has served on the boards of the Palo Alto Area YMCA, and the Palo Alto Senior Coordinating Council (Avenidas).

His undergraduate degree is in religious studies from Stanford, and he later earned an M.A. in public policy from Occidental College and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington.