Santa Barbara City College will induct a Magnificent Seven individuals, plus its state championship women’s tennis team of 2001, into its Vaqueros Hall of Fame on May 31.
The ceremony, which includes a noon reception and event program from 1 to 3 p.m., will be held at SBCC’s Campus Center, 721 Cliff Drive.
Tickets can be purchased online at sbccvaqueros.com.
The inductees include former NBA star Ron Anderson, Major League Baseball pitcher Dylan Axelrod, beach volleyball Olympian Dax Holdren, women’s basketball star Carrie LaBudde-Cotter, multi-sport athlete and coach Chuck Melendez, long-time coach and administrator Ellen O’Connor and golf team booster Diane Wootton.
Ron Anderson — Men’s Basketball
Anderson came to SBCC with no organized basketball experience, having been recruited to the team by another Vaquero from his hometown of Chicago.
It didn’t take coach Frank Carbajal long to develop him into All-Western State Conference First Team selection in both the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons. The Vaqueros won 24 games both years.
Anderson, a 6-foot-7 forward, was also selected as a junior college All-American after averaging 20 points per game during his sophomore season. He made 58.8% of his career field-goal attempts at SBCC.
He continued on to Fresno State where he averaged 16.3 points and 5.8 rebounds as a junior. He won MVP honors at that year’s National Invitation Tournament, leading the Bulldogs past DePaul in the championship game at New York’s Madison Square Garden. He averaged 17.6 points and 6.1 rebounds as a senior.
The Cleveland Cavaliers selected him in the second round of the 1984 NBA Draft. He averaged 10.6 points over the course of 10 seasons with five teams. His best year came with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1988-89 when he averaged 16.2 points and 5.0 rebounds while playing alongside NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.
He continued playing overseas, mostly in France where he still lives, after getting released by the Washington Bullets in 1994. He didn’t retire from the game until just after his 52nd birthday in 2010.
Dylan Axelrod — Baseball
Baseball turned pitcher Axelrod into a self-described “nomad,” pitching in 14 cities during a 10-year professional career. That included five seasons in Major League Baseball — three with the Chicago White Sox and two with the Cincinnati Reds.
He was only 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds when he was voted Channel League Pitcher of the Year for Santa Barbara High School in 2003, having posted a win-loss record of 10-1.
Axelrod grew to 6-feet and got his weight up to 195 pounds at SBCC with extensive weight training. He also began a long-toss program he saw on the internet. He was soon throwing a baseball through the goal posts at SBCC’s La Playa Stadium — from one end to the other — covering a distance of 120 yards.
Axelrod set SBCC’s school record of 117 strikeouts in 2005. Coach Teddy Warrecker’s Vaqueros advanced that season to their first Southern California Regional since 1978. They tied the school record for victories with a mark of 24-15— a record that was broken four years later.
He also pitched for UC Irvine’s College World Series team of 2007, recording three of the Anteaters’ NCAA Tournament wins.
Although the San Diego Padres picked him in only the 30th round of that year’s MLB Draft, he eventually worked his way up through the minor leagues to make his big-league debut with the Chicago White Sox in 2011.
He appeared in 48 games with the White Sox and in 11 more with the Cincinnati Reds before his release in 2015. He also pitched for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Axelrod returned to the major leagues in 2023 as the new Pitching Performance and Integration Coordinator for the Detroit Tigers.
Dax Holdren — Men’s Volleyball
Holdren, a three-sport athlete at San Marcos High School, developed as an elite volleyball player during his time at SBCC. He didn’t start playing the sport until his junior year of high school when he joined cousin Clay Holdren and close friend Todd Rogers in coach Jon Lee’s program.
During his senior year of 1989-90, he helped San Marcos advance to the CIF-Southern Section Division 4A finals in basketball and semifinals in volleyball.
Dax continued playing volleyball at SBCC where he helped coach Jay Hanseth’s Vaqueros win a Western State Conference title. He credited Hanseth, an eight-year veteran of the Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour, for especially developing his blocking skills.
Holdren began working on his beach volleyball game the following year. By 1997, he had finished second at the U.S. Championships with Rogers, his old San Marcos teammate, and was voted AVP Rookie of the Year. The two former Royals won eight pro tournaments together, beginning with the 1998 Minneapolis Open.
They also made a historic run as the No. 32 seed to the championship of a 2000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in Rosarito, Mexico. They were the lowest-seeded main draw team to ever win a men’s or women’s international beach volleyball competition, defeating Kevin Wong and Rob Heidger in the final.
Holdren also triumphed in two of the AVP Tour’s major events in successive years: Hermosa Beach in 2001 and Manhattan Beach in 2002. He won 14 AVP Tour events altogether, which included five with Eric Fonoimoana and one with Jeff Nygaard.
He joined forces with Stein Metzger to win a silver medal at the 2003 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rio de Janeiro to earn one of the two coveted spots on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team. They outperformed their No. 12 seeding in Athens, Greece by finishing fifth.
Holdren was regarded as one of the game’s best defensive players during his 16 years on the AVP Tour, ranking as high as second in digs in 2005. He also ranked ninth in both kills and aces that season.
Carrie LaBudde-Cotter — Women’s Basketball
LaBudde-Cotter led SBCC’s 1988-89 women’s basketball team to only the second Southern California Regional berth in the program’s history.
The 5-foot-10 forward came to SBCC after a standout career at Santa Ynez High School. She earned All-CIF Southern Section Division 1-A honors for the Pirates in both 1986, when she averaged 13.9 points a game, and in 1987, when she scored at a 16.7-point clip.
She showed her tenaciousness by grabbing a school-record 26 rebounds in one game — a mark since matched by Ariana Gnekow and Grace Padilla.
LaBudde-Cotter, who was recruited to SBCC by basketball coach Mary Ann McLaughlin, established herself as one of the state’s top rebounders by averaging 13.3 per game during her freshman season. The Vaqueros finished with a 16-13 record — its best finish in six years.
She won first team All-Western State Conference honors as a sophomore in 1988-89 in Ellen O’Connor’s first year as coach, averaging 12.6 rebounds per game. Those Vaqueros went 18-12 and advanced to the So Cal Regionals for the first time in 10 years.
LaBudde-Cotter was honored that year by the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table as its College Women’s Basketball Player of the Year. The California Community College Athletic Association inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2003.
She was recruited to play at Humboldt State where she was voted as the Northern California Athletic Conference Player of the Year during her senior season of 1990-91.
LaBudde-Cotter set a single-game school record that still stands by scoring 17 baskets in a game against Cal State Hayward. She also ranks third in the college’s record books for most field goals in a season (197 in 1990-91) and is 10th in career field goals (358).
Humboldt State inducted her into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.
Chuck Melendez — Golf, Football, Baseball Coach
Melendez, a former star football quarterback for the Vaqueros, also served SBCC as a head coach in four different sports: baseball, football, and both men’s and women’s golf.
He retired in 2020 as the longest-tenured head coach in Vaquero history with 31 years of service. His career as both a coach and teacher at the college spanned 35 years.
Melendez came to SBCC from Dos Pueblos High School in 1976 to play both baseball and football. He quarterbacked the Vaqueros to the Western State Conference football championship during his freshman year. He continued on to Eastern Oregon State to rank among the national passing leaders in the small college division.
He was hired by SBCC’s Physical Education and Athletic Departments in 1982 to teach and serve as an assistant football coach. He left in 1985 to become the offensive coordinator at Nebraska’s Chadron State. He also coached at Humboldt State for two years while earning a master’s degree before returning to SBCC in 1988.
Melendez served as the Vaqueros’ head coach in baseball from 1990 to 1994 and in football from 1994 to 2000. He guided SBCC to football bowl berths in both 1996 and 1997.
But his greatest coaching success came during his two decades on the links. He won more state championships than any other Vaquero coach in history by guiding the women’s golf team to California Community College Athletic Association titles in 2006, 2008, 2013 and 2015.
Melendez’s first state championship team won the 2006 event by 60 strokes. He also took second in the state in 2007 and 2016.
Four of his Vaquero women won individual state championships: Natalie Todd (2006), Asaka Sim (2008), Fanny Johansson (2013) and Carolin Chang (both in 2015 and 2016).
Melendez won eight WSC team championships in women’s golf while earning the league’s Coach of the Year Award each of those times. The Vaqueros won 130 straight WSC matches from 2015-17.
His men’s golf team finished among the state’s top-six teams four times, placing second in both 2006 and 2019.
Ellen O’Connor — Basketball Coach and Administrator
Ellen O’Connor’s tireless service to Santa Barbara City College athletics wasn’t even half over when she retired as a winning women’s basketball coach in 2002.
O’Connor, a professor of physical health and education at the college from 1988 to 2023, also served a long and distinguished career as an administrator. It included two stints as SBCC’s interim director of athletics — from 2009-to-2011 and again in 2016-2017.
She also assumed pivotal roles in several state-wide athletic organizations. She served as President of the California Community College Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (CCCWBCA), President of the Western State Conference (WSC), and Chair of the Gender Equity Committee for the CCCAA Management Council.
O’Connor’s career in college athletics began as player on the University of California at Berkeley basketball team from 1976 to 1979. She also served on the Cal Bears’ “Captain’s Council” while earning a degree in kinesiology.
She got her start in coaching while earning a graduate degree at UC Davis, serving as an assistant to women’s basketball coach Pam Gill-Fisher.
O’Connor won 183 games during her 14 seasons (1988 to 2002) as the Vaqueros’ head women’s basketball coach. SBCC posted a win-loss record of 86-35 during her last four years while earning Southern California Regional bids during each of those seasons. Her first team of 1988-89 also advanced to the Regionals.
She was honored as the WSC & WBCA Region 8 Coach of the Year in 1999 and inducted into the CCCWBCA Hall of Fame in 2006.
O’Connor, who served SBCC for nearly a quarter-century as an associate athletic director, was honored as California Community College Athletic Director of the Year after the Vaqueros’ historic seasons of 2016-17.
They won five Western State Conference championships and two individual state titles that school year. Three of the women’s teams reached the State Final Four. SBCC also graduated 94 student-athletes in 2017 with 96% of them transferring to four-year institutions.
O’Connor held several executive positions with the California Community College Commission on Athletics. Her efforts proved crucial in obtaining equity and inclusion for female athletes throughout the state.
She was most recently recognized as the CCCPEKD Kinesiologist of the Year (2023). After retiring, Ellen was selected as Commissioner of the Bay Valley Conference.
Diane M. Wootton — Vaquero Booster
Although Wootton’s greatest claim to athletic fame came as a national champion tennis player, her enshrinement in the Vaquero Hall of Fame is for her support in pioneering a state championship team in women’s golf.
Wootton helped raise the funds that started the program in 1996. She also assisted in organizing and running the luncheon and fashion show, as well as several golf tournaments, that have sustained it over the years.
She was honored for her efforts in 2009 at the 16th Annual SBCC Golf Classic — an event for which she has long volunteered — while also receiving the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table’s Louise Lowry Davis Award for her “leadership and sportsmanship.”
Wootton’s more than half century in the sport of golf has included terms as president of the Ladies Golf Association at both Alisal Ranch and the Birnam Wood Country Club. She won the association’s tournament championship 22 times.
She has served as secretary, tournament director and first vice-president for the Southern California Women’s Golf Association. Wootton was also a trustee for the WSCGA Foundation in 2008-09 and received the organization’s Distinguished Service Award in 2016.
She was a girl when her parents, Jesse and Lorraine Wootton, introduced her to the sport of golf at the Montecito Country Club.
Wootton also started playing tennis at the age 12. Within just a few years, she earned a spot on both the So Cal and U.S. Junior Wightman Cup Teams.
She finished second in the voting behind CIF Football Player of the Year Ernie Zampese — a future USC star and NFL coach — for Santa Barbara High School’s 1953 Athlete of the Year award.
She was a senior in 1955 when she and partner Barbara Breit won a national junior tennis title at Philadelphia in the 18-and-under doubles division. She was also ranked No. 4 in singles that year.
Wootton was also ranked No. 17 in women’s singles and No. 4 in doubles with Janet Hopps the following year.
She began teaching physical education, coaching girls’ tennis and serving as assistant dean of girls at Venice High School in 1959. She joined the faculty at Ventura High in 1965, served as both Dean of Girls and Assistant Principal, and coached both the boys and girls tennis teams for 29 years.
Wootton was voted into Ventura High’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994 and enshrined by Santa Barbara High’s “Ye Olde Gang” as a Hall of Fame Don in 2002.
2001 Women’s Tennis Team & Coach Ingrid Schmitz
The fire that burned inside Santa Barbara City College’s State Championship women’s tennis team of 2001 was actually lit the previous year. The Vaqueros got fired up after losing the 2000 final to Fresno City College, 5-1, at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.
The Vaqueros capped an undefeated, 20-0 season the next year by blanking Santa Rosa, 5-0, in the championship match at Sacramento’s American River College.
The roster included Kinsley Carnahan (Genender), Melissa Harmon, Jaime Higa, Gabriela Bou Ghosson Marcato, Jenny May, Juri Otsuka (Dowell), Kelsey Roberts, and Sonja Woerle.
Coach Ingrid Schmitz, who played tennis for SBCC from 1977 to 1979, called it “by far the deepest team I ever had” in her nine seasons at the Vaquero helm.
Otsuka, the only Vaquero to win her match in the 2000 final, won the state’s 2001 Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award, the Western State Conference Player of the Year Award, and JC All-America honors in singles and in doubles with Higa. May and Roberts also won All-America recognition in doubles.
Carnahan, who missed the first half of the season, played No. 1 singles in the final against Santa Rosa.
She had suffered heat exhaustion at the Southern California Regionals in Chula Vista, but rallied for the clinching victory of 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in Sacramento’s blistering 106-degree heat in the State Final match
Otsuka overcame an injured big toe. The Vaquero trainer, Susan Houlihan, had to pop a giant blood blister that formed on top of it so she could continue playing.
The eclectic team came from all over the world: Otsuka from Japan, Marcato from Brazil, and Woerle from Austria. Higa was a surfer from Maui while May was an accomplished model from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Roberts, a graduate of Santa Barbara’s San Marcos High School, was a trained ballerina.