Pac-10 tournament blossoms in third year here

San Jose’s HP Pavilion hosted its third State Farm Pac-10 Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament this past weekend, and the championship continues to get better every year. Stanford once again won the tournament and will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Many thanks to our former mayor, Susan Hammer, and the entire local organizing committee for raising $35,000 to provide tickets to disadvantaged youngsters.

The tournament banquet at the Fairmont Hotel was extra special this year. In addition to honoring the conference’s best players, actress and comedienne Aisha Tyler entertained the crowd with 45 minutes of side-splitting humor – quite a performance.

Jim Goddard, general manager of HP Pavilion, and I recently returned from Indianapolis where we met with the leadership of several sports governing bodies including the NCAA. We both felt the trip was successful because it allowed us to underscore our interest in hosting certain events and continue to strengthen our relationships with key sports decision-makers.

Sports Authority representatives will make other trips over the coming 45 days to the NCAA hockey championships, the Long Beach Grand Prix, the NASC Sports Conference in Portland and to Phoenix where we will meet with the USOC leadership.

I’ll talk with you again next month. In the meantime, please visit www.sjsa.org for the latest news on San Jose sports.

Dean Munro
Executive Director

More than 38,000 college basketball fans turned out this past weekend for the biggest San Jose-area basketball events of the season.

Just hours after claiming the No.1 spot in the Associated Press women’s basketball poll, the Stanford Cardinal won its third consecutive conference championship Sunday in the State Farm Pac-10 Conference Tournament at HP Pavilion. Led by tournament MVP Candice Wiggins’ 16 points and seven rebounds, Stanford downed Arizona State 56-42 to win its 20th straight game of the season.

At Santa Clara University’s Leavey Center, the third-seeded Santa Clara women upset Gonzaga and its 23-game winning streak 77-66 Sunday to win the women’s portion of the combined men’s and women’s West Coast Conference Basketball Tournaments. Michelle Cozad had 22 points for the Broncos including 4-for-5 shooting from the three-point line. Santa Clara set a tournament record with 30 three-point field goals over three games.

Monday night in the men’s championship, twelfth-ranked Gonzaga defeated St. Mary’s 80-67 for its second consecutive WCC title. Tournament MVP Adam Morrison had a career-high 30 points in the victory.

The tournament results give the Stanford and Santa Clara women and the Gonzaga men automatic berths in the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments. Seeds and brackets for both tournaments will be announced this weekend.

The San Jose Earthquakes will open their 10th Major League Soccer season in Spartan Stadium on Saturday, April 2 against the New England Revolution with the theme of “Bring It Home,” and the Sports Authority is supporting their drive for a third MLS championship.

Join us and other fans in the Plaza de Cesar Chavez, across from the Fairmont Hotel, at the Sports Authority’s Meet the Quakes Rally from 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday where you can meet the 2005 Earthquakes players and see their new uniforms in advance of the first kickoff.

The Sports Authority also invites you to join the Mayor's Kicks for Kids program, which gives businesses, corporations and individuals the opportunity to provide Quakes tickets to non-profit organizations that serve underprivileged children and families throughout the Bay Area. More than 10,000 children were served by the program last season, and the goal for this year is to serve 15,000. To become a sponsor, which includes recognition in the match program and in-stadium exposure, call (408) 288-2655.

With a new chair and six new members, the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Board has begun work on selecting its 11th class of nominees for induction in November. Amy Love leads the board with new members Chris Dorst of Cranite Systems, Eric Landtbom of Allied Engineering, John Picone of Picone Painters, John Ralston of San Jose State, Larry Wolfe of the Santa Clara city parks and recreation department and Sherri Sager of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.

During the three-year chairmanship of Joe Dooling, the hall inducted 13 new honorees. More information about nomination criteria is on our Web site, where you may make a nomination online.

Players from all 16 teams competing in this weekend’s National Junior Wheelchair Basketball Tournament will be available from 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, March 10 at the tournament’s opening ceremonies, emceed by Dean Munro, executive director of the Sports Authority, at the San Jose State Event Center.

The defending champions of the tournament for 13- to 18-year-old players are the Bay Cruisers from Berkeley.

Martial arts take center stage in San Jose on the March 19-20 weekend when two Olympic sports governing bodies put on large events.

USA Judo’s High School, Middle School and NCJA Collegiate National Championships at the San Jose State Event Center will involve nearly 900 athletes and coaches including the host San Jose State Spartans, the nation’s perennial collegiate judo power.

The McEnery Convention Center will be the scene of USA Taekwondo’s national qualifying tournament. More than 3,000 athletes will compete for spots in the senior national championships, which will be held at the convention center in October.

Boys and girls will compete in all three weapons disciplines – épée, foil and saber – April 8-10 at the Pacific Coast Youth & Junior Fencing Championships in the San Jose Convention Center.

The tournament covers age divisions from 10 through 19.

When the calendar flipped over to March, it shifted preparations for the inaugural San José Grand Prix into high gear. The sound of turbo-charged engines roaring through the streets is just four months away.

If you’ve driven on West Santa Clara Street, Almaden Boulevard or around HP Pavilion, you know what I mean. Crews are lowering manhole covers and removing concrete islands to convert these streets into a smooth, fast race course.

Just as significant is the creation of our official schedule for the July 28-31 Grand Prix week. In addition to our climactic Champ Car World Series race, we now have agreements with four other series: Toyota Atlantic, Trans-Am, local Historic Stock Cars and the US Touring Car Championships. There also will be a demonstration of the hottest addition to the motor sports scene – drifting – the art of controlling a car sliding sideways as close to the edge of control as possible.

It all kicks off with the San José Grand Prix Fan Festival, to be held at the Checkered Flag Family Fun Festival Area across the street from the Pavilion. It's free and will feature food, games, live entertainment and more. There will also be plenty of on-track qualifying and racing to please every race fan.

Everywhere you look – from the merchandise in the Pavilion gift shop to the official race Web site at www.sanjosegrandprix.com to the road construction downtown – things are taking shape. I can't wait.

Amy Love, the new chair of the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, was recently appointed CEO of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives and has a long career in the technology, publishing and consumer products industries. Most recently she was chief operating officer and board member for Molino Networks.

Love led management consulting teams with ADL Inc., and Booz Allen Hamilton. She also successfully marketed and sold products for Navigation Technologies, a then Philips subsidiary, including serving as vice president for sales, marketing and distribution for North America and Europe. She started her career with Procter & Gamble.

However, she is best known to the public for her involvement in women’s sports. In 1997 she founded REAL SPORTS Magazine and continues to serve as the publisher for the company's Annual Most Important Moments in Sports printed editions. She is a national spokesperson for issues involving women’s sports having been interviewed by ABC World News, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsweek, among others. Her recent speaking engagements include the European Venture Capital Conference, the Texas Professional Women's Business Conference, the California Governor's Conference, the Girl Scouts National Convention and Texas Tech University’s fall commencement.

Love received bachelor's degrees in marketing and management from Texas Tech and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. She is an adjunct professor at San Jose State University College of Business.