VCSF Awards for the Department's Outstanding Candidates

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office awards an outstanding graduate of each Academy class. The award is determined on a recruit’s overall performance throughout the 23 weeks of the Academy program in the areas of personal traits, academics, marksmanship, scenario performance and physical fitness. The award is sponsored by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Foundation.

Officer Michael Curtis Cole received the Outstanding Graduate Award from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Foundation. The award which includes a crystal and an engraved firearm was presented by the Foundation’s President, Bruce De la Cuadra. Officer Cole will serve with the Oxnard Police Department after graduation from the Academy.

2010 VCSF Department Outstanding Candidate Award

Deputy Travis Neet was selected as the recent award winner, excelling in all his classes and being a leader among his peers. He has carried himself with confidence and performed well in all areas of the program. That factored in with all the other high scores won him the Outstanding Recruit award.

2009 VCSF Department Outstanding Candidates Awards

Officer Charles Katsapis had made it to week 13 in a previous class and injured himself on the POST Work Sample Test Battery. His injury prevented him from continuing, so he returned to the academy in Class 2008-3. He came back with an outstanding attitude and took leadership of the class right away. He was a strong leader who cared about each of his classmates. For this reason, he was selected as the class sergeant. He performed well in all aspects of the academy while leading his classmates effectively. Staff was impressed by his attitude, effort, and performance; so we each rated him very high in personal traits. That was a big factor in causing him to win the outstanding recruit.

Officer Cody J. Collet was not the class sergeant. What impressed staff about him was that he was able to be a leader in the class without the title of class sergeant. His peers rated him very high on the peer evaluations, and commented that he was a very influential recruit in the class. He carried himself with confidence and performed well in all areas of the program. In fact, he won the Academic Achievement and Outstanding Scenario Performance awards also. Staff recognized the extra effort Collet gave to his classmates by giving him high scores for the personal traits award. That factored in with all the other high scores won him the Outstanding Recruit award.