Induction Year: 2024

Elaine Canchola was no ordinary freshman high school distance runner.

At the 1994 CIF-Southern Section cross country championships, the Nordhoff freshman bettered the Division III-A meet record by 62 seconds with a time of 17:35, the fastest-overall performance for all divisions of the day. But, Canchola wasn’t done that fall.

Over the next three weeks, Canchola would place second at state Division III finals in Fresno by six seconds and 19th at the Footlocker Nationals.

Canchola was off and running to become the section’s first four-time girls cross country champion and for nearly two decades as Ventura County’s only runner to achieve that feat.

Over her career, Canchola would add two state cross country and three section track individual titles.

The first of her state titles came at the 1995 meet, winning the III-A title by 36 seconds and setting a meet record in the process.

After being the 1996 state runner-up, Canchola stormed back to capture the 1997 Division IV title by 35 seconds.

With Canchola setting the pace, Nordhoff won four section and two state team titles.

At the 1997 section track and field finals, Canchola won the Division III 1,600- and 3,200-meter titles. She placed sixth in the state 1,600 final.

She repeated as a section 3,200 champion in 1998 as well as her second Masters 1,600 title.

Canchola had an immediate impact with the UCLA women’s cross-country team as a freshman. She helped the 1998 Bruins team qualify for the NCAA championships for the first time in a decade. Canchola was 45th at the Pac-10 finals. The next fall, UCLA returned to the national championships. Canchola placed 46th at the West Regionals.

Canchola set a school record for the 3,000-meter steeplechase with 10:39.62 for a seventh-place finish at the Pac-10 Championships. More than two decades later, the performance ranked No. 9 on the school’s all-time list.

Transferring to the University of Wisconsin for her senior year, Canchola placed second in the mile at the 2002 Big Ten Indoor Championships and helped the Badgers qualify for the NCAA cross country championships.

She and her husband Jeffrey Ley reside in Vancouver, Washington, with their son Leo.

Cliff and Roxanne, his wife of 51 years and No. 1 fan, have three children, Danielle of San Jose, Brian of Folsom, and Russell of Lowell, Mass.  They have four grandchildren, Raye, Jeyda, Dalton and Jameson.

Twenty years had passed since Nordhoff High’s last football league championship.  In four decades, the program had made just five postseason appearances.  To turn the program around, Ron Barney liked what he saw in an assistant coach for Fallbrook High, the 1986 San Diego Division I Champion.

Farrar, with deep Ventura County roots, was hired in 1987.  By his fifth season, Ranger football had risen from the Frontier League cellar to the top of the heap, winning the 1991 league championship.  The 1991 team turned the program around and set the tone for 30 plus years with “A Tradition of Winning.”

For 15 of the next 16 years, the Rangers would capture nine league titles, make 15 playoff appearances, reach the semifinals eight times and finish as section runner-up in 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2007.  Cliff and his coaches would be Staff of the Year seven times and LA Times Ventura County Coach of the Year twice.

His Nordhoff teams were built on team unity, hard-nosed football, love of the game and great players.  Nordhoff produced numerous league offensive and defensive Players of the Year. Josh Hawkins was the 1994 CIF Divisional Offensive Player of the Year.

His legacy was more than wins and championships.  From pre-game parades to the stadium, drum lines inside the locker room, the Ranger horse leading the team onto the field, and embracing school and community traditions, Farrar lent his support.  His players would say discipline, integrity, and the importance of character in their lives was instilled by all coaches.

He was Athletic Director for six years, helping start the Tri-Counties Athletic Association and introducing girls golf and girls water polo. He was an assistant track coach, helping to train several of the school’s record holders.

After leaving Nordhoff, Farrar turned around a struggling Buena program, leading it to the 2009 Channel League championship.  Leaving after the 2011 season, he finished with a career record of 171-119-2, third best in Ventura County history.  His playoff record was 26-16.

He would return to Nordhoff as the defensive coordinator under Coach Tony Henney, one of his former players, helping win section championships in 2012 and 2013.

Born in Ventura, Farrar attended Oxnard High.  He was a defensive back on the 1965 Channel League Championship team and was a member of the track team’s school-record setting 4×400 relay.  He ran track in Europe in 1969.

Farrar coached 53 years of football, 25 years of track, and eight years of basketball.   He served two terms as President of the Ventura County Football Coaches Association.  He and Russell are members of the Nordhoff Hall of Fame.

Parade Magazine could not wait until Natalie Sanderson’s season to end to announce the Buena High senior as its 2001 national high school girls soccer player of the year.

Could not wait more than a couple of weeks into her senior season to inform Sanderson of the decision, either.

Sanderson would finish the season with 40 goals and lead Buena a share of the CIF-Southern Section Division II title with Mission Viejo.

In Sanderson’s case, statistics did not matter when the panel of collegiate coaches made their decision.

Her skills were honed through club and high school soccer and appearances on seven age group national teams beginning with the under-14 squad. To become the best, Sanderson had played with and against the best.

So it was no surprise that Sanderson would be selected as the Ventura County Star’s player of the year three times and the CIF-Southern Section Division II offensive player of the year twice.

Buena won the Division II section title in Sanderson’s junior season with a 32-0 record. The following season, the Bulldogs would close out with a 19-game winning streak before tying Mission Viejo 1-1 for the title. She finished with 130 career goals despite being often double- and triple-teamed.

Sanderson would be named the 2001 Gatorade California Soccer Player of the Year and make the national high school soccer All-American scholastic team for the second time.

In her first collegiate game for the Stanford University women’s soccer team, the freshman had a goal and an assist in a 2-1 win over Fresno State. Sanderson scored the game-winning goal against Denver in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. She finished the season fourth on the team with 11 goals.

As a sophomore, Sanderson had the game-winning goal on a penalty kick in her first collegiate start. Stanford was ranked No. 1 in the nation and reached the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament. Another game-winning goal came the following season in double overtime against St. Mary’s.

For her collegiate career, Sanderson had 40 starts in 76 games, scoring 33 points on 11 goals and 11 assists.  She was a four-time PAC-10 academic team selection.

Sanderson is employed at Nike World Headquarters.

She and her husband and two children reside in Portland, Oregon.

Jackie Newman was regarded as one of the greatest fast-pitch softball pitchers in Ventura County history. There weren’t many statistics from the 1950s and 1960s kept to back up that claim. Just legendary performances.

With Newman in the circle, two county teams were runners-up in three national tournaments in a dozen year span. There were four national/world all-tournament selections.

His fastball was once clocked at 106 miles per hour.

There was the MVP award at the 1956 National Softball Congress tournament and All-World selection the following summer, leading the Oxnard Elks to runner-up finishes. Newman was the MVP of the 1960 Western Softball Congress and its top pitcher two years later. At the 1963 Amateur Softball Association tournament, Newman struck out 29 in 30 innings as Oxnard placed third.

The Camarillo Kings were the runner-up at the 1968 ASA tournament with Newman winning three of his four starts. His only loss came in the championship game when the opposing pitcher threw a no-hitter.

While still in high school, he pitched his men’s team to the 1951 city championship. The summer after graduating from Oxnard High, Newman was 33-3, allowing only six runs.

On furlough from the Army in 1954 and having not pitched for 10 months, Newman pitched a one-hitter and struck out 19. The following year, Newman pitched a perfect game with 19 strikeouts in a Santa Barbara Tournament.

After years of frustrating hitters in men’s leagues since the age of 16, the City of Recreation Department considered limiting Newman to any position – except pitcher – in league games. Too many mismatched teams were leaving. After careful debate, Newman could pitch – until his team had reached a predetermined lead.

After wrapping up 27 seasons, Newman continued to leave his mark, serving as pitching coach for the Camarillo Kings’ 1981 and 1982 International Softball Congress national championship teams.

While Newman could have made a living as a professional softball pitcher, worked as a draftsman at Point Mugu and a technical illustrator for the Dynaelectron Company in Oxnard.

He and his wife Carolyn Rose Newman have two children, David and Karen. His family resides in Henderson, Nev.

Sami Whitcomb was a woman of all (basketball) seasons.

For the majority of her professional career, the Buena High graduate played for teams in two and sometimes three leagues each year.

Whitcomb exchanged uniforms for teams from Europe and Australia to the United States for more than a decade. At every stop along the way, her resume was filled with multiple decorations.

Her career almost failed to get off the ground.

At Buena, Whitcomb scored 1,421 points, helping the Bulldogs win three consecutive Channel League girls basketball titles and earning two Ventura County Player of the Year honors.

She closed out her collegiate career at the University of Washington with bests for season scoring and rebounding. Whitcomb was named to the All-Pac-10 first team.

Undrafted by the WNBA, she had a brief tryout with the Chicago Sky. After being released, Whitcomb accepted a position as the video coordinator for the Washington women’s basketball team for the 2010-11 season.

Whitcomb found a path to a German pro league with the ChemCats Chemnitz in June of 2011. In that first season, Whitcomb was named as import of the year and guard of the year. It has been almost non-stop since. Thirteen teams in 14 years.

One bad break opened a huge door for her. After Whitcomb’s German team went bankrupt in 2023, Whitcomb found a team in Australia. She was an instant hit, winning three MVP, four All-Star 5 awards, leading her team to two championships.

Moving up to the WNBL, Whitcomb won three more All-Star 5 awards and set season scoring and 3-point records in three seasons.

That led to Whitcomb signing with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm for the 2017-18 season, where she was a member of the Storm’s 2018 and 2020 championship teams.

In 2017, Whitcomb tied a WNBA record with six 3-pointers in a half.  When the WNBA went to the quarter format, she tied a league record with five 3-pointers in the third quarter on Aug.18, 2022, against the Minnesota Lynx.

She became a naturalized citizen for Australia in 2018 and has helped her national team to medals in two international competitions. This winter, Whitcomb helped Australia qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Whitcomb and her partner Kate Malpass have a son Nash.