Whitcomb headlines five-inductee 2024 Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame Class

The Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame has announced its five-inductee class for 2024.

Professional basketball player Sami Whitcomb, soccer phenom Natalie Sanderson, state champion runner Elaine Canchola, football coach Cliff Farrar, and softball showman Jackie Newman will be inducted on June 2 at the hall’s annual banquet at the Serra Center in Camarillo.

Whitcomb was The Star’s All-County Girls Basketball Player of the Year in 2006, averaging 17.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.6 steals per game as a senior at Buena High.

She was an All-Pacific-10 Conference selection, averaging 13.0 points per game as a senior at the University of Washington.

After playing professionally in Germany and Australia, where she broke the WNBL’s single-season scoring record, Whitcomb broke into the WNBA with the Seattle Storm, where she was part of WNBA championship-winning teams in 2018 and 2020.

After two years with the New York Liberty, Whitcomb returned to Seattle last year. She’s also played in Europe with Basket Lattes of France and Galatasary of Turkey.

Now a Australian-American dual citizen, Whitcomb currently plays for the Storm and the Townsville Fire of Australia’s WNBL, as well as the Australian national team, which is currently ranked No. 3 in the world.

She was a part of the Australia Opals team that qualified for the 2024 Olympics in Paris last month by sweeping Germany, Brazil and Serbia  in Brazil.

Sanderson is one of the best soccer players in Ventura County history.

The silky forward scored 130 career goals at Buena High from 1998 to 2001, when she was named the National High School Player of the Year by Parade Magazine.

A mainstay of the U.S. youth national team, Sanderson was The Star’s All-County Girls Soccer Player of the Year in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

She committed to Stanford, where she was a four-time All-Pac-10 Academic Selection and a Pac-10 champion in 2002.

Sanderson lives in Oregon, where is the merchandising director with Jordan Women’s brand at Nike. She is the assistant soccer coach at Tigard High.

Canchola burst on the scene at Nordhoff High in 1994 and became one of the most successful runners in state history.

From 1994 to 1997, she became the first runner to win four straight CIF-Southern Section girls cross country championships as the Rangers won four straight team titles.

Canchola ran to individual state titles in 1996 and 1997, her efforts leading the Rangers to state team titles in 1995 and 1996.

She also won three straight section titles in the 1,600 meters and two section titles in the 3,200, achieving the grueling distance double in 1997 and 1998.

She was a four-time NCAA championships qualifier at UCLA and Wisconsin, setting a school record for the 3,000-meter steeplechase at UCLA in 10:39.62

Farrar is the third-winningest football head coach in Ventura County history. His teams were 171-119-2 in 24 seasons at Nordhoff and Buena highs.

At Oxnard High, Farrar played football for Jim Tyner and ran track for Tuck Mason. He was a defensive back on the 1965 Channel League championship team and was part of the school record-setting 4x400 relay team.

After playing football and running track at California Western University, he began his coaching career at Oxnard High under Jim Bittner in 1971. He was hired as the head coach at Nordhoff in 1987 and spent 21 years with the Rangers, winning nine Frontier League titles and reaching section finals in 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2007.

After spending four years as Buena High head coach from 2008 to 2011, Farrar returned to Nordhoff, serving as Tony Henney’s defensive coordinator on CIF-SS Northwest Division championship teams in 2012 and 2013.

Now living in Northern California, he coached his 53th football season last fall, guiding his grandson Jamison’s eighth-grade team in El Dorado Hills.

As the feature attraction on the mound for the Oxnard and Camarillo Kings, Newman was an ambassador and a showman for fast-pitch softball for nearly three decades.

Born in Oklahoma in 1933, Newman moved to Ventura County in 1946. He was a phenom in junior softball and began playing men’s league at 16. He played baseball at Oxnard High for Burt Killingsworth.

The Camarillo Daily News labeled Newman as “Mr. Softball of Ventura County” in 1981.

Newman currently lives in Henderson, Nevada.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Whitcomb headlines five-inductee Ventura County Hall of Fame Class