SBCC Inducts Men’s Soccer Team, Tennis Coach and Four Athletes into its Hall of Fame

Santa Barbara City College gave a tip of the cap during Saturday’s Athletics Hall of Fame banquet to those who pioneered their sports programs.

The college inducted the 1996 men’s soccer team, which was the first to win a State championship. It was coached by Tim Vom Steeg, who had started the program just four years earlier.

Also inducted was Jack Sanford, the school’s first men’s tennis coach, who won his own state title in 1989.

The athlete inductees were Addison Seale, who led the Vaquero women’s water polo team to its first Southern California title; Kailey Snyder-Lecher, who pitched SBCC softball to its first Western State Conference championship; Rachelle Visser, who powered the Vaqueros to their first league crown, and punter Mitch Wishnowsky, who became the first SBCC football player to play in the NFL’s Super Bowl.

1996 State Champion Men’s Soccer Team

Vom Steeg got the ball rolling for Santa Barbara City College soccer when he raised $40,000 to start its men’s and women’s programs in 1992. Just four years later, he coached the Vaqueros to their first California Community College State Men’s Championship.

SBCC routed Palomar College 6-0 in the 1996 State Final at Sacramento’s Consumnes River College to cap a 20-2-0 season which set the school record for victories. It was surpassed only by Vom Steeg’s final Vaquero team that went 21-3-2 in 1998.

Vom Steeg, who would coach his alma mater of UCSB to the NCAA Championship a decade later, assembled a lean but keen Vaquero roster of 11 starters and six well-used substitutes.

“What is so good about our team this year is that we have 17 good players,” Vom Steeg said after one match that season. “So what happens is, if the game starts to slow down or if we are not playing real well, we can make some changes and bring some players off the bench and pick it back up again.”

Two foreign-born sophomores — forward Flemming Sorensen from Norway and goalkeeper Alex Pavao from Brazil — anchored the team on opposite ends of the pitch. Sorensen, a left-footed striker, was selected as a National Junior College All-American after setting SBCC’s single-season and career record for goals. Those marks remained in the school record books until Mark Knight broke them more than a decade later.

The roster was well fortified with local talent that Vom Steeg had acquainted himself with while playing in the Central Coast Soccer League. Eleven of his 17 players were from high schools located in either Santa Barbara or Ventura County.

Three of the local Vaqueros were from Santa Barbara High: sophomore Luis Alcaraz and his freshman brother, Hugo, as well as sophomore Gilbert Guerrero. Hugo Alcaraz, the team’s playmaking midfielder, still holds SBCC’s career assist record of 52.

Three San Marcos High graduates — sophomore Alfredo Moreno, and freshmen Ken Newendorp and Gerardo Alvarado —played prominent roles, as did freshman goalie Omar Hernandez from Dos Pueblos High.

The 1996 Vaqueros also featured sophomore Aaron Older and freshman Ray Mendoza from Buena High, freshman Jeff Saucedo from Ventura High; sophomore Chris Fernandez from Simi Valley’s Royal High; freshman Duda Coelho from Los Gatos High; freshman Corbett Tristan from Portland, Oregon’s Wilson High; sophomore Jesse Morgan from San Dieguito High, and Santa Monica College transfer Jack Thomas “JT” May.

“What made this team so cool was truly the diversity of players from all around the world and how we figured out how to excel in our individual roles for the betterment of the team,” Morgan said. “Part of that was due to great leadership from Tim, but also many of us putting our egos aside and leading by example.”

Jack Sanford, Men’s Tennis Coach

For three decades, Sanford was Santa Barbara City College tennis. He made an immediate impact when he became the team’s first coach in September of 1965 upon entering the new Western State Conference.

“Because SBCC had no on-campus courts my first eight years at SBCC, we used the Santa Barbara City Municipal Courts,” Sanford said. “Not easy for either the players or me. However, all that changed when SBCC president Dr. Julio Bortolazzo dedicated a new tennis facility in 1974.”

He nevertheless logged a stellar win-loss record of 459-143 by the time he retired in 1994. He won the first of his 12 WSC titles in 1973 with a 19-3 mark.

Sanford’s Vaqueros made it to the State Finals in 1978 and won the California State Community College Men’s championship in 1989, setting the school record for victories with a 24-2 mark. They were also state semifinalists in 1978 and 1990.

He continued serving the school in retirement as an adjunct physical education instructor by teaching tennis classes from 2000 to 2015. He’s also served the community as a long-time USTA official.

Sanford’s team-building skills were honed as a drill sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He enrolled at Cal Poly and played on its tennis team after completing his military service. He also served as President of the student chapter of CAHPER (California Association for Health Physical Education and Recreation).

He coached five successful seasons of boys and girls tennis at Hanford High School after his graduation from Cal Poly before returning to the Central Coast to start SBCC’s men’s program.

Sanford has been inducted into three other halls of fame. He was enshrined by the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table in 1998, by the California Community College Tennis Coaches Association in 2000, and by the Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons in 2013. He also received a Wilson Coach of the Year Award in 1992.

“Being inducted into the SBCC Hall of Fame means a great deal to me, if not more so than all the other awards I have received, since the Santa Barbara area has been our family’s home for over 60 years,” Sanford said. Jack and his wife Cathy, who passed away barely a month after celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary last June, raised three sons and three daughters. All six played collegiate tennis.

Cathy, who also served in the Air Force and graduated from Cal Poly, was inducted into the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table in 2005 as a high school girls tennis coach. In 1976, she won the National Equitable Family Tennis Challenge with son John and took second with daughter Julie in the mother-daughter division. The Sanfords received the Southern California Tennis Association’s Family of The Year Award in 2006.

“I only wish Cathy could have been here to share this important event,” Jack said upon notification of his SBCC Hall of Fame induction. “Her wisdom, encouragement and steadfast partnership made every achievement possible. She was, and remains, the wind beneath our wings.”

Addison Seale, Women’s Water Polo

Seale helped pioneer women’s water polo at Santa Barbara City College, leading the Vaqueros to their first Southern California Regional championship during just their third season in 2016.

Coach Brian “Chuckie” Roth described her as “a cornerstone” for the Vaqueros, “establishing herself as one of many accomplished and versatile student-athletes in program history.”

Seale was a two-sport star, serving as captain of both SBCC’s water polo and swimming teams. She was voted as the school’s Female Athlete of the Year during the calendar year of 2016-2017.

She established herself as a left-handed attacker in water polo soon after arriving from La Jolla High School in the fall of 2015. She ranked second on the team in scoring while leading the Vaqueros to a Western State Conference championship. She was voted to the all-league first team and received second-team All-America honors.

“Her ability to take over games was evident early in her career, including standout performances such as a five-goal, three-steal effort in a dominant conference victory,” Roth said.

Seale earned All-America honors again as a sophomore while being named WSC Player of the Year. She led the state with a school-record 107 assists in 30 games for an average of 3.6 per match.

She also set the school record for assists in a match that season with seven against Fullerton College. She matched it with seven more during a semifinal victory over Sierra College in the State Community College Championships.

Seale nearly rallied the Vaqueros to victory over Riverside in the final. Her goal sent the match into overtime, but Riverside pulled out the victory, 9-8. She also had seven steals in the match.

“Known for her scoring ability, defensive intensity, and high water polo IQ, she consistently impacted games with both goals and steals,” Roth said.

She continued to excel in the pool for the Vaquero swim team, posting eight All-America times while setting five school records. She led SBCC to a fourth-place finish at the State Meet in 2016.

Seale was also named as SBCC’s 2015-16 Scholar-Athlete of the Year with a grade-point average of 3.5.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at UCSB in 2019 and has served as the head coach of La Jolla’s Wind ‘N’ Sea swim team since 2023.

“She’s amazing in the water and will do anything you ask,” Roth said during her sophomore season. “Out of the water, she’s the girl that you never really have to check, she always takes care of her business.”

Kailey Snyder-Lecher

Snyder-Lecher’s strong right pitching arm carried Santa Barbara City College to the greatest season of women’s softball in school history.

“Kailey, affectionately nicknamed ‘The Hurricane’ for her devastating 65-mph fastball, was the cornerstone of our historic 2011 season,” Vaquero coach Paula Congleton said. “That year, our program reached heights never before seen at SBCC, and Kailey’s individual dominance was the primary reason for our collective success.”

Snyder earned Junior College All-America honors that season while being named Pitcher of the Year for Southern California Community Colleges as well as in the Western State Conference’s Gold Division. She led the Vaqueros to their first league championship with a record of 16-2 and to their first Southern California Regional bid since 2006.

SBCC won 21 of its first 23 games which included upsets of the state’s No. 1 and No. 4 teams. It also set a school record for consecutive wins with 12 and for total victories with an overall mark of 31-7.

“We had such a small team (12 players) that we became close and we worked well together,” Snyder said. “We didn’t want to let each down and knew we had a lot to prove.”

She set the school record for pitching victories with her individual record of 27-4. She also posted an earned run average of 0.94 while striking out 233 batters to rank second in the state. She pitched 14 shutouts and allowed two hits or less in 13 games.

Snyder set another program record by striking out 15 batters in a game against Moorpark. She also pitched back-to-back no-hitters, the second of which was a perfect game with no baserunners allowed.

“I remember looking at her in the circle during the late innings of a double-header … Despite the heat and the pitch count, Kailey got stronger as the game went on,” Congleton said. “Her grit was infectious. And her intensity inspired the rest of our team to compete with the same championship-caliber intensity.”

She was also a driving force for SBCC’s offense, leading the WSC Gold Division in batting during the 2011 season with a .478 average. She hit two home runs and drove in 21 runs. She finished her two-year career with a .410 average in 65 games, slugging 12 doubles and four homers with 34 RBIs.

Snyder, who came to the Vaqueros after starring for Santa Maria’s St. Joseph High School, finished her two seasons at SBCC with a career ERA of 1.12. She also set the school’s all-time records of 319 strikeouts and 16 shutouts.

She accepted a softball scholarship from Colorado State and posted a perfect win-loss pitching record of 9-0 during the Rams’ season of 2012.

Rachelle Visser, Women’s Swimming

Women’s swimming was quick out of the starting blocks during its first season at Santa Barbara City College, thanks to Visser’s arrival from The Netherlands in 2014.

She mastered all events during her two years with the Vaqueros. Her times rank among the top seven in the SBCC record books in a whopping 10 events. Her school record of 2:07.43 in the 200 individual medley still stands, and she’s No. 2 in three other events: the 100 butterfly, the 200 butterfly and the 400 IM.

“She might be the most naturally talented swimmer I have ever coached,” Vaquero coach Brian “Chuckie” Roth said at the time. “She is very talented, has a big love for the sport, amazing feel for the water and she is what you could call a true technician.

“As a person she’s dedicated, funny, serious, honest and dependable and really everything you’d look for in an athlete.”

Visser had already established herself as a top junior talent in The Netherlands. She was ranked No. 12 in all of Europe when she was competing in the 14-and-under age division. She won 34 national age-group titles while swimming for ZPC Amersfoort.

She decided to widen her horizons when time came to choose a college.

“I wanted to move out of Holland and do something challenging,” Visser said. “I had visited Santa Barbara (in 2006) and I really liked it then. When I came back here, it felt like home.”

Roth, who had been recruiting her through emails, sealed the deal during a Skype video chat.

“I only saw his nose and it was really hard to hear him because my parents were talking loud and it was really chaotic,” Visser recalled. “But I could tell that he was really friendly.”

She led SBCC to an overall record of 28-8 and a 12th-place finish in the state during her freshman season of 2014. The Vaqueros followed that up in 2015 with an overall record of 33-4 and their first Western State Conference Championship. Visser was voted by the coaches as the league’s Swimmer of the Year.

She capped her sophomore season by winning “Performance of the Meet” honors at the CCCAA State Championships after finishing first in both the 200 IM and 400 IM. Her efforts led SBCC to an eighth-place team finish.

“She really is the heart of the program,” Roth after that meet.

Mitch Wishnowsky, Football

Santa Barbara City College’s La Playa Stadium served as a strategic steppingstone for Wishnowsky in his around-the-world journey from Australia to the National Football League. He recently signed a contract to return for a second season with the Buffalo Bills and his eighth overall as an NFL punter.

Wishnowsky, who had quit playing Australian Rules Football at age 18 after a series of shoulder injuries, came to SBCC after training in Melbourne to become an American football punter at a facility called ProKick. The center had previously placed punter Tim Gleeson at SBCC.

“Tim had found success there and spoke real highly of Santa Barbara, so I thought, ‘Why not follow Tim?’” Wishnowsky said.

The 6-foot-2 and 220-pound kicker opened the eyes of Vaquero coach Craig Moropoulos when he ran the 40-yard dash in just 4.57 seconds during one of his first workouts.

“I saw right away that he had the size and the speed and the ability,” he said. “His potential was obviously there. But it was also how driven he was. His work ethic turned out to be the best thing about him.”

Wishnowsky earned All-State and All-Western State Conference honors in 2014 with a punting average of 39.8 yards. But it was his placement, not the distance, that drew special notice. He dropped 20 of his punts inside the opponent’s 10-yard line — a skill he’d learned while playing Australian Rules Football.

“He was like a golfer with a pitching wedge,” Moropoulos said.

Wishnowsky was recruited to punt for the University of Utah. He won the Ray Guy Award as the NCAA Punter of the Year during his first season of 2016. He ranked second in the nation with an average of 47.7 yards per kick and topped all punters by dropping 17 kicks inside the opponent’s 10-yard line.

He followed that up with punting averages of 43.9 yards in 2017 and 45.2 in 2018. He earned All-America honors in all three seasons at Utah and became the first three-time Ray Guy Award finalist in NCAA history.

The San Francisco 49ers selected him in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft — the first of only two punters drafted that year. He rewarded them with a stellar rookie season, winning National Football Conference Special Teams Player of the Week honors in Week 9.

He became the first Vaquero to play in the Super Bowl when he punted for the 49ers in their 31-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on Feb. 2, 2020. Wishnowsky made a second Super Bowl appearance in the 49ers-Chiefs rematch at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11, 2024. He punted five times in that game for a whopping 50.8-yard average in a 25-22, overtime loss.

He’s punted in 105 games during his seven-year NFL career, averaging 45.5 yards per kick. He’s placed 156 of his 348 punts inside the 20-yard line and has been blocked only twice.

Wishnowsky and wife Maddie, who met as classmates at SBCC, live in Santa Barbara with daughter Bowie, age 4, and son Winn, who will turn 2 in July.