Okay- some bally news!!

Here's my Man, Taka. Getting a quick bite to eat before taking off to see the rest of the tournament Zen's team has been in this weekend (three nights).

The coach gave some game pointer reminders this afternoon before the last game to decide whether they got third or fourth place in this tournament. (click on the photo and you can see it up close)

Rain is in the forecast, so the sunlight outside the Civic Center was in a beautiful way, making the cheerleaders look better too!



THIS WAS THE NEWSpaper IN THE SANTA CRUZ SENTINAL THIS MORNING (Zen's team is the Santa Cruz Cardinals):

Dads Club: Untimely timeout costs Santa Cruz in semifinal loss to Harbor

Ryan Moses - Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted: 12/13/2008 01:37:16 AM PST


SANTA CRUZ -- For a split second Friday night, as the apparent go-ahead 3-pointer swished through the hoop, it looked like the Santa Cruz High boys basketball team had pulled off another stunner in the historic Dads Club Tournament.

But time -- rather, a timeout -- wasn't on the Cardinals' side.

Santa Cruz's celebration was cut short by the referee's whistle, as he signaled Santa Cruz coach Charles Burks had called a timeout just before junior forward Taylor Kientzel released the could-have-been game-winner in a 60-59 loss to crosstown rival Harbor.

Instead, the Pirates fans at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium roared in relief as their team held on for an exciting 60-59 victory in the semifinals of the 53rd year of the Emmett Thompson Memorial Dads Club.

"I did the same thing two year ago," Burks said of the untimely timeout. "That was too much coaching at that point. As one of my players said in there, I need to trust them. That was my loss, not theirs. They played their butts off."

Harbor [5-1] advances to face Salinas at 6 p.m. today in the tournament final, and tournament host Santa Cruz [3-3] will play in the third-place game against Soquel at 4 p.m. Scotts Valley will take on Aptos in the consolation final at 2:30 p.m.

For the second night in a row, Harbor held a 14-point lead heading into the fourth quarter but had to fight down the stretch to preserve the win.


AND finally tonight Santa Cruz High, with Zen playing so much, made a nice win over Soquel High School to place third (out of eight teams) and left the tourney feeling better.