Father's Day Tournaments

The 6th and 5th Grades Play Father's Day Weekend

The setting for both the 6th and 5th grade was the Burlingame Sports Center.  This is a wonderful sports center with 3 basketball courts.  The BullDawgs run their tournaments here.  The parking is very tight, but not impossible.  The morning was already warming up and so was the action inside the center. 

The 6th grade had an early morning game, 8:30 am on June 16.  They were ready to go against the San Jose Falcons.  It was an exciting and close game as the boys rushed up and down the court in familiar UH fashion.  The ball travelled like a yo-yo on a string attached to the players' hands.  There were several lead changes and the defense was tough.  The UH boys played hard.  As the game stayed close most of the time, in the end the UH team prevailed.  The final score was 46-41 with a UH win.  They now had to wait until 2:00pm for their second game.  The heat outside was escalating quickly, but the action in the gym was even hotter.

The 5th grade team was a slim 8 man roster which included the talented UH 5th grade players and one 3rd grader from the 4th grade team, all lead by head coach R. Narciso.  The first game was at 9:40 am against the Belmont Falcons.  Game 1 was full of action.  The Falcons put up a good fight, working for every shot.  However, players such as J. Radich with his 3 point shots and C. Haastrup and J. Ortiz with their awesome rebounding was just too much for the Falcons.  After the amazing drives and layups by S. Fitchie and C. Carlton to add to the lead, the UH team won 32-22.  Now the 5th grade waits for game 2 of the same day.

Game 2 for the 5th grade was against EB Unite, a local East Bay team.  Some players from our side knew some players from the EB Unite team.  This was a close game with EB Unite leading the whole first half.  It looked dismal and possibly, the UH team was to suffer a loss.  However, after a pep talk at the half by Coach Narciso and his assistant, the boys came out on fire.  N. Gloria drove hard to the basket with determination putting up a beautiful layup.  A. Tohouri putting up a floater as it glided into the net.  N. Austria was aggressive under the basket, several times getting the rebound and putting points on the board.  The whole 5th grade team came back from the half with a passion.  The game remained close until the fourth quarter.  The UH team began to pull away in the final minutes winning game 2 43-37.  The 5th grade team ends the day with a 2-0 record.


Unfortunately for the 6th grade team, they played a hard second game.  The 6th grade team entered the D1 division and were tough enough to play an elite team.  They played hard and with lots of energy.  However, they would lose.  They would end their Saturday with a 1-1 record.  Maybe it was the long wait between the two games.  They had to wait from 9:30 to a little after 2:00 pm just waiting.  Burlingame is on the other side of the bay for us and a long wait between games can be very inconvenient icing our hot players.  I think they had a better chance if the games were closer together.  Onto game 3 for Sunday against Bay City for 3rd place.

Sunday was full of game 3's for this tournament.  The 5th grade played in the championship for their bracket as the 6th grade played for 3rd place.  There was the usual fantastic ball handling and amazing shots.  The regular outside shots made their 3 pointers and the bigs did their job rebounding and protecting the ball.  The players screened appropriately allowing guards to drive or dish out.  However, the 6th grade had a slow start to the game and their bodies took time to wake up.  These young boys had a tough game, again their first D1 tournament and ended up falling to Bay City, 36-44.  The 5th grade team played Team Esface out of East Palo Alto and with a 22-5 UH lead at the half, the UH team finished the tournament in first place.  The final score was 42-15 with an Uptempo Hoops championship victory.  Fortunate for the 5th grade team, they had the addition of J. Razal #23 to the roster who can play a strong forward.  Coach Narciso received the trophy and the boys were dawned with medals for their efforts. 

It was a busy weekend with an exciting tournament.  Both the 6th grade and 5th grade played hard.  Good job to the coaches and to the players.  The 6th grade won their first D1 game and that's an amazing feat in itself.  The 5th grade walked away with a tournament win.  Congratulations to both teams!