On Our Board:
Dan Fenton

March is college basketball season in San Jose

The State Farm Pac-10 Conference Women's Basketball Tournament finished its fifth year in HP Pavilion at San Jose this week with another successful event. Our Local Organizing Committee raised $47,000, which was used to purchase tickets for underserved kids and families.

In two weeks, San Jose returns to the college basketball stage, hosting the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship West Regional.

College sports, with the television coverage they bring and an ever-changing roster of interesting and embraceable athletes, are valuable to our community for the attention they focus on us and the role models they present to our youth. That's why the Sports Authority, along with our hometown universities  – San Jose State, Santa Clara and Stanford – works hard at maintaining our relationship with the NCAA and bidding for events.

The Sports Authority has bid to extend the Pac-10's stay in our city through 2011. The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship will return in 2010, hosted again by San Jose State, when six first- and second-round games will be played in HP Pavilion.

Patricia Ernstrom
Acting Executive Director

San Jose will be front and center on the national sports stage this month when the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship returns to the city for the third time.

One of four teams will advance from the March 22 and 24 West Regional, played in HP Pavilion at San Jose, to the Final Four. CBS Sports will televise all three games.

This is the second time San Jose State has been the host institution, the first coming in 1997. Santa Clara was host institution for the 2002 West Regional.

This is the seventh NCAA championship event held in San Jose. The list includes the 1996 and 1999 and 2000 NCAA Women's College Cup, soccer's final four, and the 1999 NCAA Division Women's Basketball Final Four.

The second annual Bay Area Senior Games on Saturday and Sunday, March 10 and 11, will feature athletes over age 50 competing in swimming, track and field, table tennis, badminton, 3-on-3 basketball, cycling, an 8K road race and a 5K race walk.

The event is the precursor to the 2009 National Senior Games, which will bring more than 15,000 athletes to the Bay Area August 1-15, 2009 to compete in 18 sports.

All of the this weekend's competition, with the exception of table tennis, at Palo Alto's Cubberley Community Center and cycling on San Mateo County's Cañada Road will take place on the Stanford campus. The softball portion of the Games will be held May 25-26.

Stanford survived a thrilling second-half comeback by Arizona State to win the State Farm Pac-10 Conference Women's Basketball Tournament 62-55 Monday night. That gave the Cardinal a berth in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship.

The title game capped the Pac-10 Tournament's fifth year in HP Pavilion at San Jose, which had a record San Jose attendance of 18,458. San Jose's Local Organizing Committee also raised a record $47,000 for the tournament, which was used to distribute tickets to local youth.

More than a 1,500 players will participate in two huge hockey tournaments beginning this month at Logitech Ice at San Jose.

The tournaments will account for more than 4,500 room nights in local hotels for the USA Hockey Girls'/Women's National Championships involving 78 teams from across the United States, the largest hockey tournament ever held in California.

The Senior A, B and C divisions compete March 22-25 followed by the girls' 12-, 14-, 16- and 19-and-under divisions will compete March 28-April 1.

Germany's Jens Voigt was first over the finish line at San Jose's City Hall when the 95-mile Stockton-San Jose road race – third stage in the Amgen Tour of California – on Feb. 21.

But Santa Rosa's Levi Leipheimer, just behind Voigt in the stage finish (left), won the overall championship, which covered nearly 700 miles over eight days.

Crowds were bigger up and down the state for the Tour, in its second year, and more than 300 news media credentials were issued. There were no vacant spots in the media work room at San Jose City Hall.

The Golf Club at Boulder Ridge will host the San Jose International Open on April 9-15, the first event of the year on the Canadian Professional Golf Tour.

Spots are now available in the Sponsor Pro-Am on Tuesday, April 10, when teams of three amateurs will be matched with a professional for the 18-hole Shamble format event. Individuals may enter for $500 or teams of three may enter for $1,350. All fees include golf, cart, range balls, continental breakfast, lunch, awards party, tee gift package, and team prizes. Dan Boever, 11-time Re/Max World Long Drive Finalist, will conduct a long drive exhibition on the range after completion of the Pro-Am. Sponsorship packages, which include entries in the Pro-Am, are available beginning at $5,000. Proceeds from the tournament will generate a contribution to Via Services, formerly the Crippled Children's Society of Santa Clara County.

Information and downloadable sponsorship and Pro-Am forms are available here. For Pro-Am information, call (209) 470-1103. For sponsor information, call (209) 598-2555. To volunteer at the tournament, call Linda at (408) 323-9900, extension 114, or email gm@boulderridgegolfclub.com.