Induction Year: 2013

Born: March 19th, 1916
Died: August 23rd, 1992
Ojai, California

Ruth attended Nordhoff High school and played Softball, Basketball and Tennis and was admitted to the Rangers Hall of Fame in 1989. Her primary sport was Tennis and prior to 1929 she was ranked number three in Southern California.

In the mid Fifties she coached at St. Catherine’s Academy and later at St.
Bonaventure High School. Ruth’s daughter, Sharon, played number one for Ventura High and went on to compete for UCLA.

Beyond her athletic prowess, Ruth’s most enduring legacy is her influence on others who were first learning to play the game. She helped start the Ventura Junior Tennis Tournament and was active in its organization for over forty years. She helped tennis coaches and players privately and stressed encouragement and positive reinforcement.

Ruth and her husband, Tex, contributed to the foundation of the Ventura County Junior Tennis Association which organizes Tennis Tournaments. She spent her life promoting Tennis programs for every type of player child to adult.

The Guthries had two children, Sharon and Robert. Ruth was truly one of the cornerstones of the development of her beloved Tennis in our county.

Born: March 30th, 1971 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Ojai Valley School 1988
Ventura College
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs – 2004 – BA Philosophy

Since she moved to Ventura County in 1981 , Mari Holden has become one

America’s most renowned racing cyclists. She won the World Time Trial Championship in 2000 and finished the year winning a Silver Medal in the Sydney Olympics. She became the first American woman to win three consecutive U.S. Championships. Mari was also a two-time member of the U.S. Junior World Triathlon team and was named Triathlete of the Year in 1991. While attending Ventura College she was on the Swim Team coached by Larry Barratte, Hall of Fame 2007, and was a member of the Junior College All American Relay team. Mari has over fifty-six accomplishments on her resume including a national record in the 40 km time trial and a U.S. National Road Championship. She has simply too many accomplishments to list here. Mari now coaches and holds cycling clinics and camps. She has served on the athletic advisory committee to the U.S. Olympic Committee and was an athlete representative to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

She serves as a consultant on Women’s Cycling and has been called one of the “greatest ambassadors in the sport of cycling.” (Ride Magazine, March 2008).

Her parents, Jim and Terri Holden, live in Ventura. Mari resides in Del Mar.

Born: May 6th, 1972 in Ventura, California

Buena High School 1990
CSU Chico 1995 – BA Health Science
National University – Teaching Credential
CSUN Administrative Credential and Masters in Educational Leadership

Keith McKnett has taught Science and coached Aquatics at Rio Mesa High School since 2001. He took over a struggling program and, in the words of his Administrators, “has taken the program from worst to first”. His teams have won twenty-five league titles. The Girls Water Polo team has won eight league titles, seventy-four straight wins, two hundred and fifty total wins and were CIF runners up twice. His Boys Swimming teams have won ten league titles and sixty-nine straight league victories.

Keith was the CIF Water Polo Coach of the Year both in 2009 and 2010, Daily News Coach of the Year in 2004 and Pacific View League Coach of the Year
ten times. Truly Keith has built a foundation of fundamentals and consistency in all the Spartans Aquatic Programs. The journey to one of the County’s elite programs could not just have magically happened. It is a testament to Keith’s work ethic.

Keith lives in Camarillo with his wife Rachel and two children, Talia and Teagan.

Born: November 11th, 1980

Adolfo Camarillo High School 1998
Stanford University
2002 – BA American Studies
2003 – MA Education

Jessica Mendoza is one of county’s most successful athletes ever. She represented Camarillo twice as its Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame Athlete of the Year. Jessica lettered in Volleyball and Basketball but it is Softball that she has become an international success. She was named a first team high school All American as a high school senior While at Stanford, Jessica was a four time All American, a four time All Pac 10 first team and a Pac 10 Player of the Year in 2000. She remains the Cardinals season record holder in hits, stolen bases, runs, batting average and the all-time career leader in home runs with 50. Jessica is a two-time Olympian winning a gold medal in Athens in 2004 and a silver in Beijing in 2008. She is a three time World Champion and won two Pan American golds. She continued with a very successful career in Women’s Professional Fast Pitch Softball.

Jessica has been the lead ESPN analyst for College Softball since 2007.

In 2006 she was inducted into the Latino Sports Hall of Fame and in 2012 was added to the Stanford University Sports Hall of Fame. In 2008 she was named the Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year.

Jessica’s personal achievements go way beyond her athletic career. Among her many accomplishments she was president of the Women’s Sports Foundation 2009-2010. She was the Athlete Ambassador for Team Darfur and Right to Play Organization in Africa. She was chosen one of five Olympians to visit our troops and hospitals in Afghanistan. Jessica and her husband Adam Burks, who are expecting their second child, live in Moorpark, California with their son Caleb.

Born: May 20, 1924 in Pittsfield, MA

University of Kansas – Wichita – 1954 – BA

After completing high school in 1942, Fred joined the United States Navy. He was assigned to the Torpedo Boat Squadrons serving in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Specifically he served eighteen months on PT 176, then on the USS Meredith until the end of 1946 when he was separated from service. After his marriage, Fred worked for General Electric in Wichita and attended the University of Kansas. He was recalled to the Navy with the outbreak of the Korean War and stationed in San Francisco. Having been released from service, he was selected by the US Air Force as a civilian employee assigned to the Missile/Space Depot in San Bernardino, California. He eventually became Division Head at the Naval Ship Weapons Systems Engineering Station at Port Hueneme.

Fred’s sons ran for Buena HS and Ventura College and a teammate dared him to run with them. Thus on a dare in the early seventies at the age of fifty, Fred began his extraordinary running career. He joined “The Sunday Brunch” — a group of twenty or so runners who met each Sunday at Arroyo Verde Park to run up into the hills. His hobby blossomed. Fred set a new age group record for fifty miles, records for the Marathon, the Ultra Marathon and even ultra-distance races. He set records at twenty five, thirty and fifty kilometers. At twenty, one hundred and three hundred and twenty-five miles.

In 1985 he was “Team Inside Runner of the Year”. Along the way he coached the Tigres Youth Running team and he and his wife Mona, became Charter members of Inside Track Running Club working countless hours at their Meets. Fred has become a dominant force in Ventura County for thirty years. He and Mona recently celebrated their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. They have four children — Laura, Chris, Nina and Richard — five grandchildren and four great grandchildren.