SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Santa Barbara City College Athletics Department is proud to announce the newest class of the SBCC Vaqueros Hall of Fame, which will be honored alongside the 2020 and 2021 Vaquero Hall of Fame inductees at the SBCC football season opener on Sept. 3 against Allan Hancock.
The 2022 class includes former SBCC football head coach Carmen DiPoalo, the 1982 SBCC Football Team, and the state champion 2006 SBCC Women's Golf Team.
"It is always a special moment in time when we get the chance to stop and honor the accomplishments of those who have defined athletic excellence in our programs," Director of Athletics LaDeane Hansten said. "Please join us on this special day as we celebrate our inductees."
The induction celebration will include a halftime recognition of all the honorees as well as a postgame reception on the second level of the Sports Pavilion Patio.
For more information on the 2022 SBCC Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Celebration, click here. For any questions, please contact Ashley Farias at amfarias1@sbcc.edu.
HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
Carmen DiPoalo
SBCC football owes much of its historical success to the tireless efforts of coach Carmen DiPoalo, whose 40-year coaching career ended on a high note in 2002 when his Vaqueros defeated a strong Bakersfield team 23-22 in the final game of the regular season. The win saw SBCC finish the year undefeated at home while clinching its first winning season in years and its best finish since DiPoalo took over as head coach in 2000.
DiPoalo's final win came more than three decades after his coaching career began at Clovis High School, the place where he initially teamed up with his friend and mentor Bob Dinaberg. The two reunited at SBCC in 1970 where DiPoalo was named the Vaqueros' Defensive Coordinator, a position he held for a total of 18 years.
During that time, SBCC won several Western State Conference Championships, was ranked the No. 1 defense in the state in 1979, and appeared in two state playoffs and eight bowl games, including the prestigious 1991 Potato Bowl. His coaching resume doesn't there, also including multiple All-State and All-American selections and the 1969 Channel League Championship with Hueneme High School.
He was also extremely impressive as an athlete himself, beginning with a three-year varsity career in both football and baseball at Monrovia, where he earned MVP and All-CIF football honors in 1957 and went on to be named Citrus College's Most Outstanding Athlete in 1959. His playing career culminated with perhaps its greatest highlight in 1962, when he competed on the 1962 UCLA Rose Bowl Team.
Tim Tremblay
Tim Tremblay attended SBCC from September of 1971 through December of 1972, and those three semesters helped shape SBCC Athletics as well as his personal life. He was a key member of Bob Dinaberg's powerful football teams of the early 1970s and served as team captain in his final year as a Vaquero.
In Tremblay's two seasons for the Vaqueros, the team compiled a record of 18-3 and Tim was named an All-Conference lineman. After starring for SBCC, he received a full athletics scholarship to continue his career at Wake Forest, choosing the Demon Deacons over 13 other major colleges who were in competition for his services.
At Wake Forest, Tremblay started as an offensive guard for two seasons in the highly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference. He even received Offensive Player of the Week honors for Wake Forest – a rarity for an offensive linemen – after a Demon Deacons win over South Carolina.
While his athletic success at SBCC was formidable, Tremblay counts an off-field moment as his most memorable at SBCC. It was while he was an athlete here that he met his wife Marcia, who was a cheerleader for the Vaqueros.
He and Marcia have been married for 47 years and have three children: Troy, Vanessa and Gisele. The son of Max and Dorothy Tremblay, Tim is also a proud alum of Bishop Diego High School, where he was a standout athlete.
He is known to many as the founder and President of Tremblay Financial Services in Santa Barbara. Since leaving SBCC, Tremblay has remained an ardent supporter of Vaquero athletics and can still be seen attending and supporting many SBCC events.
Kathy O'Connor
The first two classes of the SBCC Vaqueros Hall of Fame included four Vaquero pioneers of women's intercollegiate athletics, but Kathy O'Connor is the true pioneer of women's sports at SBCC.
It was O'Connor who started the women's sports programs in the mid-1970's when she founded and coached the school's women's volleyball team. The current SBCC women's sports programs are among the most successful in the state and none of that would have been possible without her leadership and vision.
A former SBCC student, O'Connor began working at SBCC as an adjunct professor in 1973 and remains a physical education instructor and head of the Physical Education for the department. She is active on many committees on campus and is very visible in the community.
Most notably, O'Connor co-founded the Santa Barbara Equine Assistance and Evacuation Team in 1990, a special unit that assists in evacuating and caring for large animals during fires and other disasters.
Dave Loveton
Dave Loveton was an award-winning Sports Information Specialist for Santa Barbara City College for 15 years, beginning in 2006 after 24 years as a sportswriter for the Santa Barbara News-Press.
During his time at SBCC, Loveton transformed the Sports Information Department and adapted with the times. As schools started to utilize websites and social media, Dave was always sure SBCC was a leader in those areas. He built the SBCC Athletics website into an award-winning publication.
Dave was a champion for thousands of students during his tenure at SBCC and treated all athletes and coaches equally – like they were stars. Dave grew up in Glendale, Calif. and played basketball at Glendale High School and Glendale Community College before attending UCSB from 1979-1981.
He was the sole member of the SBCC Vaqueros Hall of Fame Class of 2021 and was also a finalist for the 2018 Brass Top Award, given to the top Sports Information Director in the state. Dave felt, and we would have to agree, that he had the best office in the entire country – the press box at La Playa Stadium.
1982 Football Team
Head coach Bob Dinaberg and defensive coordinator Carmen DiPoalo had quite a run leading the SBCC football program together for many years. Perhaps no year was more exceptional than the 1982 season though, which ended with the Vaqueros defeating LA Harbor in the Lions Mission Bowl Championship Game for their first ever bowl game victory.
SBCC started the season reasonably well, coming out of the gates with a 3-2 record. Led on offense by players like quarterback Greg Tipton, wide receiver Craig Dell, tight end Rick Trigueiro and offensive linemen John McClure and Andy DeMarcus, the Vaqueros would get hot, winning five straight games to end the year with an 8-2 mark. The two losses totaled a scoring differential of just five points.
However, a stacked defensive unit boasting the likes of defensive linemen Joe Jones, Yaron Lerer, and Mark Olson, linebackers Mark Brown and Mark Crane, and defensive back Ernie Brown would prove that defense wins championships. DiPoalo's steadfast crew allowed an average of just 11.5 points per game for the season, while recovering nine fumbles, picking off 18 passes and bringing in three defensive touchdowns.
After losing in the Lions Mission Bowl in their first two appearances, the Vaqueros got their third shot against a strong LA Harbor team that entered the championship game with a near-perfect 8-1 record. Playing on their home field, all three of SBCC's units were firing on all cylinders: special teams converted all six of its PAT and field goal attempts; the defense, playing against the No. 2 ranked offense in the nation, held Harbor's best players well under their season averages; and Tipton threw for nearly 300 yards and four touchdowns on the way to winning the game's Most Valuable Player award, securing what is, to this day, the lone bowl game win for SBCC football.
2006 Women's Golf Team
On November 13 and 14, 2006, the SBCC women's golf team put together simply one of the most dominant championship performances ever. Led by Natalie Todd and Victoria Alimonda, the Vaqueros obliterated the field at the CCCAA State Championships, flying past State Runner-Up College of the Canyons by a remarkable 60 strokes to claim the program's first ever state title.
A dominant force from the start to the finish of the season, SBCC established itself as one of the premiere programs in the state of California. Todd would claim the State Champion Individual Title shooting a 73-72 (145), finishing just one stroke ahead of her teammate Alimonda, who carded a 73-73 (146).
It was seemingly inevitable that the state title would end up in the hands of the Vaqueros, after they had posted a perfect 45-0 record during conference competition. They would first secure the WSC Championship before going on to win the SoCal Regional Tournament by 48 strokes.
Alimonda and Amber Clifford, who had previously earned Co-MVP awards in their senior year at Dos Pueblos High School, shared the honor of WSC Co-Players of the Year. Todd, Alimonda, Clifford, Kristen Mulenburg, and Pearl Schuman all earned All-WSC First Team honors. The team also included Kristen Campos, Marlene Cokley and Lauren Ferguson.
SBCC had made the state playoffs in each of the five previous seasons, but 2006 would be the first of four state championships ('06, '08, '13, '15) under head coach Chuck Melendez.
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SBCC Athletics has been unable to hold a Hall of Fame celebration since honoring the inaugural 2019 class. This coming school year, the Vaqueros plan to have two separate Hall of Fame celebrations, with the first landing on Sept. 3 and the second occurring later in the spring. Special thanks to SBART and The Channels writers Pat Schmaljohn, Yuko Hirose and John Stark for information provided in this article.
