After the NCAA champion is crowned tonight in Atlanta, CBS will signal the end of the men's college basketball season by playing the appropriately sappy song "One Shining Moment."

There will, of course, be more shining moments for sport's stars, like Ohio State's manchild Greg Oden. The NBA will keep them glowing with bling bling for years to come. The end will inevitably come, though, as sure as the sun will set on another glorious Santa Barbara day.

For most sports participants, the shining moments are rare and fleeting. As a sports writer for 38 years, I have found those moments on the playing fields of local schools as well as Olympic stadiums.

When my career at the News-Press was abruptly interrupted, I found the spotlight shining on me. My 15 minutes of fame went into multiple overtimes. I was humbled, gratified and mortified by the attention. Now it's time to get back to work.

It's good to be writing again, for santabarbaranewsroom.com as well as the Independent, even though my feelings about the task were very well expressed by the late, great columnist Red Smith: "Writing is easy. I just open a vein and bleed."

I have gotten out to a few games in the past month. I took in a fabulous baseball game at Dos Pueblos High between the host Chargers and the Santa Barbara Dons. It was an old-fashioned pitchers' duel won by Dos Pueblos, 2-0.

Dan Martony, the DP pitcher, reportedly was running a fever of 102 degrees. He was not overpowering against the Dons. They hit him hard. But the Chargers kept making great defensive plays behind him. Third baseman Brad Armstrong, a fill-in for another starter who had the flu, looked like Brooks Robinson in the 1970 World Series.

Santa Barbara hurler Mason Radeke pitched out of several jams, but the Chargers manufactured two runs against him, and that was enough.

Look for those two teams to battle it out for the Channel League championship. They will face each other twice more in back-to-back games -- April 24 at Santa Barbara and April 27 in a DP home game that will be played at UCSB's Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.

I also followed the UCSB women's basketball team in the Big West Tournament -- the Gauchos lost the championship game to UC Riverside 70-67, a March Madness classic -- and saw them win their opening-round WNIT game at the University of San Diego.

UCSB's men went out in a disappointing Big West quarterfinal loss to UC Irvine after a fine season in which the Gauchos won 18 games. Among the teams they defeated was UNLV, which reached the NCAA Sweet 16.

The Gauchos have a history with UNLV, going back to the years both teams were in the Big West. Former UCSB coach Jerry Pimm scored some amazing victories over his friend, UNLV's Jerry Tarkanian. In 1990, the Gauchos were the last team to defeat the Runnin' Rebels, who went on to trounce Duke in the NCAA final by a staggering 103-73 score. UNLV went undefeated the next year until Duke turned the tables in the NCAA semis.

It is no surprise to the friends of Ben Howland, who was Pimm's top deputy, that he has led UCLA into two consecutive Final Fours. Howland is as intense and tough-minded as they come. He is the second son of a Santa Barbara preacher to achieve prominence at UCLA. His father was the late Bob Howland, a Presbyterian minister. Jamaal Wilkes, a great UCLA forward in the 1970s, was the son of the late Leander Wilkes, a Baptist preacher.

Wilkes was Bill Walton's sidekick on a Bruins team that put together a fantastic 88-game winning streak. When did it start? On Jan. 30, 1971, when UCLA beat UCSB 74-61.

My next few columns will delve into the past and present of another Santa Barbara-UCLA-and-beyond legend, Karch Kiraly. He will embark on his 29th and final season on the professional beach volleyball this month with a new partner, Kevin Wong. The winner of 148 beach titles and three Olympic gold medals, Kiraly had a lot to talk about during a recent in-depth interview.

As dominant as he was on the beach, Kiraly missed a bunch of tournaments in the 1980s when he was on the U.S. men's indoor team. He won two of his gold medals indoors, as well as a world championship in 1986.

That year was the last time Halley's Comet could be viewed from earth. Talk about your shining moments. Actually, it was a little disappointing. Maybe it will do better next time. For all you young 'uns, that will be in 2061.

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it