Induction Year: 2016

Ron Wilson was drawn to the sport of wrestling at the age of 11. He was the Junior High State Champion in Wyoming. His family moved to Ventura County in 1967. At Camarillo High, he became Ventura County’s first four-time wrestling league champion. He was a two-time section runner-up. Ron wrestled at UC Santa Barbara, where he became a conference champion, Most Valuable Player and NCAA qualifier.

He has been a head varsity coach for 36 years, the last 24 at his alma mater. His teams have won 10 league championships, one section title and eight top 10 finishes. Wilson has coached nine individual section champions, 12 state qualifiers, five state placers, three national high school qualifiers and one high school All-American.

Coaching wrestling has taken Wilson beyond the Ventura County borders. Wilson has been an assistant coach on the World Elite Team and the national head coach for teams traveling to Russia and Poland in 1996 and 1997. He was the head coach of the Olympic Festival and assistant training site director for the 1984 Olympic Games. Ron is also part of the Wrestling National Coaching Staff and USA Wrestling World Cup and Championship Team Liaison.

In 1994, the Los Angeles Daily News named him the Coach of the year. He was a Disney Apple Excellence Award Nominee and given the Oxnard Union High School Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. He was honored as Educator of the Year by the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce in 2013 and recognized as a CIF-Southern Section Model Coach. He was named as the Pacific View League coach of the year twice. His team tied the national record for the most points scored in a wrestling dual meet. Ron was named as the 2015 Coastal Conference Coach of the Year and awarded as the Educator of the Month in 2016.

He has also coached youth soccer, track and softball teams in Camarillo for 22 years. He was a clinician at Oklahoma State Wrestling and USA Wrestling National Camps.

Coaching Accomplishments
11 league championships.
475-199-2 record.
18 state qualifiers.
3 Masters champions.

Named to the California Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022

Ron and his wife Kathie have been married for 43 years.

At Bonita Vista High School, Gary was the leading scorer and a 1st team All-Metropolitan League basketball player in his senior season. He also played as the #2 man on the boy’s golf team in both his junior and senior seasons. After attending and playing basketball at Westmont College in his freshman year, Gary transferred to California State University at Northridge. While attending CSUN, Gary coached the Ventura County Boys Basketball 12 and under All-Star teams and during the 1978 season they won the Golden State Boys Basketball State Championship. Gary graduated from CSUN in 1979 earning a Bachelor of Social Science degree and a teaching credential 2 years later.

In April of 1981, Gary became the Director of Golf and Head Golf Professional at Sunset Hills Country Club. In 1985 Gary earned PGA Class A-1 status and in 1987 he qualified and played in the PGA National Club Professional Championship held in La Quinta, California.

In 1991, Gary returned to the field of education and in 1993 was hired as a social studies teacher at Thousand Oaks High School. In 1992, Gary began coaching boys basketball at Newbury Park High School at the Frosh/Soph and Junior Varsity levels and was also an assistant Varsity coach for the 1993-1994 season. In 1994, Gary was hired by Anna Merriman as the Head Varsity Softball Coach at Thousand Oaks High School and for the next 8 years Gary coached both basketball and softball at TOHS during the same school year.

From 1994 to 1998 Gary coached the Thousand Oaks High School frosh/soph boys basketball team and then in 1998 he became the Varsity assistant to Hall of Fame Coach Rich Endres. In 2001-02, the boys team went on to become Marmonte League Champions and CIF finalists. That same year, Gary became the Athletic Coordinator at Thousand Oaks High School. A year later, he left the boys basketball program, and in 2011 he took over as the Head Girls basketball coach and led them to their first Marmonte league title in 14 years and was named the Marmonte league coach of the year.

In 1994, Gary took over the softball program at Thousand Oaks High School from legendary Hall of Fame Coach, Chuck Brown. In 1997, Gary won the first of 9 Marmonte League Championships and was selected as the Ventura County Softball Coach of the Year. After receiving the Marmonte League Coach of the Year award in 1998, an honor he received 5 times, the Lancers ran off 4 consecutive Marmonte League Softball titles from 1999-2002. In 2001, the Lancers were not only Marmonte League Champions but also won the CIF Championship, with a 5-2 victory over California High School for the first softball title in school history. Gary was selected as the Region Coach of the Year, the CIF Coach of the Year and was Cal-Hi Sports Softball State Coach of the Year and the Lancers finished the season ranked 3rd in the state and 11th in the country. From 1997 to 2009, the Lancers won 9 Marmonte titles in 13 years in a league that was often referred to as the toughest and most competitive softball league in California. Gary retired from coaching softball and basketball in 2013 to become the Assistant Principal and Athletic Director at Thousand Oaks High School. In his twenty-year tenure as the softball coach of the Lancers, he complied an overall record of 403 wins, and 172 losses and 6 ties, traveling all over the United States to play in the most challenging tournaments and compete against the best teams in the country.

Gary and his wife Beverly, the girl next door, have been married for 34 years. And yes, Gary’s and Beverly’s parents still live next door to each other! They have three beautiful daughters, Kristina, Kari and Haley, son-in-law Tim and grandson, Ethan.

Steve was a four-sport athlete at Santa Clara High, competing in football, basketball, baseball and wrestling. He was named to All-Frontier League football teams from 1970-72 and was selected to the Ventura County All-Century Football Team by the Ventura County Star. Steve was a three-time All-Frontier League baseball selection as well, earning MVP honors in 1973. He signed a letter-of-intent to play both sports at the University of Oklahoma.

However, after his senior year at Santa Clara, Steve was drafted in the fifth round of the major league baseball amateur draft and signed a contract with the Oakland A’s. He played five minor-league seasons for the Oakland and St. Louis Cardinals organizations as a pitcher before a torn rotator cuff injury forced him to retire. Out of professional baseball, Steve was encouraged by former Ventura College football coach Dick James to play for the Pirates. He played two seasons for VC where he was an All-Western States Conference Offensive Player of the Year and a second-team all-state selection as a tackle.

In signing a letter-of-intent with the SMU football program, Steve became one of the first athletes to have played professional baseball out of high school and return to play Division I football. He was a starting left tackle for the Mustangs when the program was ranked among the best in college football. SMU was the 1981 Southwest Conference champion with a 10-1 record.

Steve has been in the electronics industry for 30 years.

For more than 20 years, Steve has been an assistant football coach at Ventura College. He was the school’s baseball coach in 2006. He has coached Foothill little league baseball for 15 years, VYBA for 20 years and youth football and club basketball for 10 years.

Among the athletes that he has coached include: Tyler Ebell, Mike Frick, Noah Lowry and Billy Griffin.

He has been married to Pam for 42 years.

Eighty-one years young and still teaching the fundamentals of basketball. Mickey J. Perry has worked his magic as a basketball instructor in Ventura County gyms for more than five decades.

From 1960-63, Mickey taught at DeAnza Junior High School. He moved to Ventura High in 1963, beginning a 22-year tenure. Mickey coached Ventura’s lower levels programs for seven seasons, compiling an overall record of 160-16. He was promoted as the Ventura varsity head coaching position for the 1970-71 season. In a 15-year career as Ventura High’s boys basketball coach, Perry’s teams won 217 games, five Channel League championships and made the class 4A section quarterfinals twice. He was named as the county coach of the year three times in a six-year stretch.

His 1976-77 team was 24-4 and reached the Division 4A quarterfinals, at the time the highest division in the CIF-Southern Section boys basketball playoffs. The following season, Ventura finished 25-2, advancing to the 4A semifinals. The 1982-83 Ventura team was 23-2, losing in the first round of the playoffs. Mickey’s teams reached 19 tournament finals, winning eight times.

He was elected to the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Association Hall of Fame in 1990.

Besides teaching math at Ventura, he served two terms as the school’s athletic director, from 1972-74 and 1976-95. Perry resigned as the Ventura High boys basketball coach after the 1984-85 season, but he has continued to be active in the sport. He was employed by the Ventura Unified School District for 39 years, teaching mathematics. Mickey was named as the district’s Teacher of the Year in 1996. He was named to Ventura High’s Hall of Fame in 1990. From 1985, Mickey has taught mathematics at Ventura College.

Perry has been a co-director of the Perry/Vaughan Basketball Camp since 1976 and a board member of the Ventura Youth Basketball Association for more than 20 years.

He and his late wife Patricia were married for 52 years.

From playing second base for the Channel Islands High Raiders baseball team to a 29-year career as a major league player and coach, it has been a long ride for Terry Pendleton.

The 1991 National League MVP for the Atlanta Braves was a third-baseman for 15 seasons with five teams. In 1,893 games, Pendleton batted .270 with 140 home runs and 946 RBIs. He won three Gold Gloves.

The road began in the Eastside Little League and continued at Channel Islands High, where he played second base for the Raiders. Pendleton helped Oxnard College reach its first state tournament appearance. He earned All-American honors at Fresno State, setting a program record with 98 hits in 1982 as the Bulldogs won their fourth straight conference title. Fresno State retired his number in 2007.

Pendleton began his pro baseball career by signing with the St. Louis Cardinals, which selected him in the seventh round of the 1982 draft. It didn’t take long for Pendleton to move up the minor league chain, being promoted to the Cardinals’ AAA team in Louisville in 1984. The Cardinals switched Terry from second base to third base during that 1984 season.

Terry made his major league debut on July 18, 1984, going 3 for 5 in a win over the San Francisco Giants. He batted .324 in 64 games for the Cardinals and finished seventh in the Rookie of the Year balloting. He was a member of the 1984 and 1986 National League championship teams for the Cardinals. Signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves in 1990, Terry played 593 games for the club. He would sign with the Florida Marlins in 1995, return to the Braves in 1996, sign with the Reds in 1997 and Kansas City Royals in 1998. He retired after the 1998 season.

He is entering his 14th season as a member of Atlanta’s coaching staff, recently being promoted to bench coach. Pendleton was the Braves’ hitting coach for nine seasons.

Terry and his wife Catherine reside in Duluth, Ga.

Most people these days recognize Ralph Martinez behind the camera taping Ventura High athletic events. What they may not recognize is that Martinez has been behind the scenes of helping to lay the groundwork for girls’ sports programs in Ventura County.

Martinez was a multi-sport coach for three decades at Ventura High. Besides being the school’s head cross country and track and field coach, Martinez served as an assistant for the school’s football, basketball, baseball, swimming and diving programs.

His influence in county athletics has been extensive. Along with Sandra Williams, Martinez organized Women’s Athletics Ventura County in 1972 under Title IX with the founding of the Ventura High girls track program. Under his supervision, Ventura became the first county school to consist of boys and girls not on separate teams. “We’ve been doing it ever since, and it’s very efficient that way,” said Martinez.

As the Ventura High coach, Martinez’s teams won six Channel League championships and a 1999 CIF-Southern Section team championship. His 2000 Ventura team was a section runner-up. Ralph received Ventura County and Santa Barbara Relays coaching awards.

He helped coordinate efforts for new regulation pools and all-weather tracks at Ventura and Buena. He has served on numerous athletic boards throughout the county.

Martinez has been on the Ventura High teaching staff since 1970. Ralph teaches government and visual communications at Ventura. His innovative techniques and unrivaled work ethic allows Ventura coaches and athletes have quality video quickly. Many of his students have gone on to help with video production programs at various colleges, including Pac 12 schools like UCLA.

Through his techniques, spectators at Ventura football games can see live film on TVs as they wait in line at the snack bar. He has graciously passed on his knowledge to athletic programs throughout Ventura County.

Ralph and his wife Patricia have been married for 55 years.