Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Inducts Seven Into Hall of Fame

Class included four athletes, a coach, a community leader and a special achievement honoree

The Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table honored its Hall of Fame induction class of 2023 in a ceremony held Monday night at a sold out Cabrillo Arts Pavilion.

The class included four athletes, a coach, a community leader and a special achievement honoree.

The athletes inducted were Dos Pueblos High alum and three-time CIF-SS waterpolo champion Sami Hill, a member of the 2016 Olympics gold medal-winning Team USA women’s water polo team; San Marcos football and wrestling star Alex Mack, a 13-year veteran of the NFL; Paula Charest Lilly, a star basketball player at Bishop Diego who helped the Cardinals win back-to-back CIF championships and was local pioneer for girls playing interscholastic sports in the late 1970s, and Jenna Ridgway Corliss, a star track and cross country runner at San Marcos who reached the CIF State Meet in both sports and ran in the Ivy League at Brown University.

The community leader honoree was San Marcos alum Harvey Bottlesen, who started the Santa Barbara Tennis Club and the Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons support group.

Journalist John Zant, who’s covered sports in the community since 1968, was the special achievement inductee. He is only the second media person elected to the Hall of Fame, joining legendary sports editor Phil Patton.

Greg Patton, a Bishop Diego and UCSB alum, was the Hall of Fame’s coach inductee. He’s been a successful tennis coach at the collegiate, professional, international and high school levels.

The SBART also honored one of its founders 96-year-old Bill Bertka.