By Bruce Auld News Review Correspondent– Samantha Farris is off to Nyack College in New York where she will study nursing and play NCAA Division II softball. At Burroughs, Samantha was selected twice for All Mojave League honors. She was Burrough’s team Captain 2017-2019. She was honored by her teammates as both offensive and defensive Player of the year.
After graduating from Burroughs in 2019, Samantha played two years of softball at Colorado Northwestern Community College (CNCC), a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I program. After completing the 2021 season with CNCC, Samantha strategically transferred to an even greater challenging level of play at Bossier Parish Community College, nationally ranked among the top 20 junior college softball programs. Samantha graduated from Bossier in 2022 with an Associate of Science Degree in Allied Health. Samantha has been accepted into the Nyack College Bachelor’s Degree Nursing program. On the diamond, Samantha will alternate between third base and catcher.
“I picked up a softball at age nine and instantly fell in love with the game. I want to play as long as possible and continue to excel in the game. I am proud to be playing at the NCAA Division II level. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a nurse. Even my Kindergarten ‘dream board’ expressed my dreams of being a nurse. I’ve always wanted to help people and be able to calm tensed situations. I believe nursing will give me the best opportunity to do so.” (Samantha Farris)
Samantha looks forward to living in the heart of metropolitan New York City, which is a whole new world compared to Ridgecrest! (Excerpted from an interview with Samantha Farris)
Samantha has already demonstrated the required ability to achieve in a rigorous academic program while accepting the challenges of highly competitive play on the diamond. Samantha is the daughter of Holly (BHS 1995) and Fred Farris (BHS 1994).
I know I have said several times that I thought I was done with baseball. Last Thursday, our son Bryan alerted me to Johnny McHenry, who was recently signed as an un-drafted free-agent with the Washington Nationals. Johnny graduated from Spanish Springs High School in Sparks, Nevada and moved to Ridgecrest upon graduation to play for Cerro Coso, where his dad John is the Athletic Director. John, too, had played for Cerro Coso for Dick Adams in the 1998 and 1999 seasons. John was a member of Cerro Coso’s first baseball team to win the conference title and went on to play for the then #1 ranked University of South Carolina Gamecocks. John has been Cerro Coso’s Athletic Director since 2017.
From the Black Hills Pioneer, by Dennis Knuckles: “SPEARFISH-Johnny McHenry, a shortstop for Spearfish Sasquatch Independence League Baseball team, has signed to play baseball as part of the Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals organization.
McHenry, from Sparks, Nevada, got the call from the Nationals on Tuesday afternoon.
‘The draft transpired and I didn’t get picked up in any of the rounds, and they (the National’s) called me about fifteen minutes after the draft ended, and they gave me my contract offer, and I accepted it,’ McHenry said. McHenry said it was his goal to play in the Major Leagues. ‘It’s been a dream of mine since I can even remember,’ McHenry said. ‘I’m looking forward to it and I’m very excited.”
