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| Class of 2005 poses for a photo during the festivities. The inductees pictured from left to right: Lee Smelser, Chuck Rheinschmidt, Linda Chisholm, Clint McKinney |
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Linda Chisholm
Linda Chisholm was a member of the first women’s volleyball team at College of the Canyons, and from small starts came grand results.
Prior to playing at College of the Canyons, Chisholm was a varsity player for Birmingham High School, lettering in both volleyball and softball. Playing and starting at College of the Canyons, she was noticed by Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Chisholm transferred to Pepperdine and played for the Waves before graduating in 1981.
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Chisholm competed in the 1979 Olympic Sports Festival and was a member of the 1979 University Games team. Chisholm played for the U. S. on the 1984 Olympic and 1983 Pan-American silver medal teams, and on the 1982 World Championship bronze medal team.
Eventually, Chisholm turned pro, playing professional volleyball for the next decade in the Women’s Pro Beach Volleyball Association, the AVPPro Beach Volleyball Tour and in the Federation Internationale de Volley Ball. Chisholm finished with 39 first-place finishes and was one of the top money-makers, winning more than a quarter of a million dollars. Chisholm was also a seven-time USVBAAll-American.
Chisholm currently coaches volleyball at Immaculate Heart High School in
Los Angeles, CA, and also works as a private fitness instructor.
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Clint McKinney
Clint McKinney began playing organized sports at Placerita Junior High School in 1963. Bill Beauer, the physical education teacher at the time, became McKinney’s track coach, wrestling coach and mentor
for many years to come, and gave McKinney the inspiration and confidence to compete at the next level.
From the fall of 1966, through the spring of 1969, McKinney attended William S. Hart High School. Under the direction of coaches Dave Holden, Larry Reisbig and Dennis Wendt, McKinney was introduced to the world of football.
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In the fall of 1969, McKinney went to the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma where he played his freshman year of college football. Near the end of that school year, McKinney received a letter from Coach Reisbig.The letter informed him that College of the Canyons was starting a football program the following school year and stated that if McKinney was unhappy at Tulsa, it would be a good opportunity to play at COC with several high school teammates and friends. In 1970, McKinney became a Cougar.
Head football coach Don Kloppenburg, with the help of coaches Larry Reisbig, Bill Sherman and Mike Gillespie, put together a program that was not only competitive but nearly won the Desert Conference Championship with a 7-2 season record. In that season, McKinney rushed for 1,490 yards, including a community college record 413 yards in one game, breaking the former one-game record of 304 yards held by O.J. Simpson. McKinney was named the Desert Conference’s MVP.
After COC, McKinney planned to attend college at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, on a football scholarship. But on August 13, the day before he was to report to football camp in Stockton, McKinney’s parents were involved in a motorcycle accident, leaving his mother in a coma for three months and his father with a fractured neck. With a younger sister and two 12-year-old cousins his parents were fostering at home, McKinney declined the scholarship to stay home and work and support his family.
The following spring, McKinney accepted a scholarship to Boise State College in Idaho where he played football in 1972. Feeling a greater responsibility toward home and family, McKinney gave up college, moved back to Newhall and went to work.
McKinney married in 1976, moved to Idaho where his parents had retired,
and worked in the logging industry for a decade. McKinney’s two daughters and seven grandchildren continue to reside in Idaho. Divorced in 1986, McKinney returned to Newhall where he went to work with his good friend, Pat Arman of Arman Grading. McKinney currently is a licensed grading contractor still affiliated with Arman Grading.
McKinney recently remarried and resides in Newhall, California, with his
new wife Judy (Howell) McKinney.
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Chuck Rheinschmidt
Original College of the Canyons Athletic Director Chuck Rheinschmidt could be considered the “Father” of Cougar athletics as it was he who oversaw the creation of the program during its inception.
Hired in 1968 by the Santa Clarita Junior College District, Rheinschmidt joined College of the Canyons when classes were still held at Hart High School. Rheinschmidt was an integral part of the creation of the athletics facilities - the same currently in use today - that became home to the now 16 intercollegiate athletic programs at College of the Canyons.
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Rheinschmidt hired or oversaw the hiring of all the athletics staff, from coaches to assistants, that laid the first prints of success in a long line of phenomenal seasons of sport at College of the Canyons.
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Lee Smelser
The name Lee Smelser is synonymous with College of the Canyons basketball. Not only did Coach Smelser begin the team, but he turned it into a thriving, vibrant program that continues its success to this day.
Coach Smelser built the initial program in 1969 and went on to coach for 31 consecutive years. While the program struggled at first, in only its third season it posted a 20-12 record. Six times the team would win 20 or more games, and thirteen times the team would win 15 or more. |
After the 1974-75 season, College of the Canyons had its first All-State and All-American player in Jesse Boyd. Boyd scored 1266 points in two seasons, a 2-year record that stands to this day.
It didn’t take long for the program’s second All-State and All-American as just 2 seasons later, George Sims won the awards for the 1977-78 season, a season in which the Cougars went 21-9 and won their first conference championship. The list of All-State and All-American players continued to add up, with Pete Coeler (1984-85), and Vincent Ray (1985-86.) Other All-State players included Nick Sanderson (1990-91), David Langley (1991-92) and Randy Eason (1993-94). A total of 73 players were named All-Conference over Coach Smelser’s 31 seasons. Four times, Smelser was named Conference Coach of the Year.
In 1984-85, the Cougar basketball team won its second conference championship, then playing in the Mountain Conference. Smelser guided the team to three more conference championships in the 1990-91, 1991-92 and 1993-94 seasons, all in the Western State Conference. Over that four year span in the early nineties, 21 years after Smelser started the program, the Cougars posted an amazing 80-42 record.
During his 31 years with College of the Canyons, Smelser worked in other
capacities, such as serving as the Athletic Director for five years and the golf coach for two. He also began another athletic program at College of the Canyons - the softball team - and served as coach for the first two seasons of that fledgling group.
After the 2000-01 season, Men’s Basketball Head Coach Lee Smelser retired, having compiled a 455-512 career record.
In 2002, Smelser was inducted into the California Community College
Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. |
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