Coach Deanna Polasek was a coach for Pampa for many years, her untimely passing six years ago this June led to a bigger cause.
“My twin sister passed away and we wanted to honor her with a scholarship in her name,” Jeanna Zuniga said. “We started it six years ago, the scholarship is for senior girls active in sports, one of the things my sister was so passionate about.”
Coach Polasek taught character education at the Pampa Junior High as well as coaching many sports for the junior high, her tenure totaling 16 years. Her memory is honored and carried on through the scholarship her sister, Jeanna organized. To raise the funds, an annual golf scramble is organized at Hidden Hills.
“The first years were very busy,” Zuniga said. “It slowed down during the pandemic, but we’re picking back up. We never stopped doing the scholarship. This year we moved the dates to June, the end of June is better for us because after July or August, you’re tired of doing the scrambles and it’s not super hot yet. Hopefully, we don’t have a rainy day.”
The first few years brought in players from New Mexico and Oklahoma, people simply coming to just play in a scramble. The day is a shot-gun start, kicking off at 8 am, for anyone to be part of.
“We allow anyone, women, men or kids,” Zuniga said. “If you have a really good handicap, we try to keep it all fair. It’s just for a good time and to raise funds for the scholarship.”
Concluding the day is a meal provided for all players in the scramble. This year the scramble is taking 18 teams. The pay-in is $80 per person, and $20 goes directly to the scholarship fund. Prizes are to be awarded to the winners of the scramble, with different categories.
“I wanted to do this to carry her legacy on,” Zuniga said. “What she did for youth and kids, she did a lot for those students. She taught them a lot, boys and girls. I wanted to make sure her legacy carried on, the good Christian woman she was and continues to carry in those students she had.”
So far, the ‘Deanna Kay Porter Polasek’ has given out eight scholarships, and continues to give them out every year to graduating female seniors at Pampa High School.
“When we started this, Hidden Hills was under the direction of David Teichmann, I called him to offer the idea and he was on board. He offered to do the prizes through the pro shop because he didn’t want that to take funds from the scholarship,” Zuniga said. “David was a long-time friend of ours and he was open to starting this. When Brian took over he wanted to continue this. He’s always worked with us and helped us in any way. He’s moved the dates to offer a larger turnout for us, both of them have been very easy to work with and so good to us. Our sponsors from the community have helped so much from the beginning, we always have people willing to help us keep going. This has become a small community of people that want to make sure this continues.”
The only hope for this year? Being able to help as much as they can.
“We want this to be amazing, our father always loved golfing and this day is for that,” Zuniga said. “We want to have as good of turn out as we can, to help those outgoing seniors. It’s always a day to spend time together to honor her, from either knowing her personally or just knowing about her. It’s a day to remember her and honor her with the scholarship we do this all for.”
To register, all a team has to do is call Hidden Hills to register. The teams have been limited to 18 teams for this year. Prizes will be given out through the pro shop.
“We give prizes for the longest drive, and two closest to the pin on two of the par 3’s,” Brian Brauchi said. “We’ll give payouts through pro shop credit to our winners. To enter in, just call out here with your team to get set up and the entry fee is the day of.”
The Golf Scramble will take part on June 24th hosted at Hidden Hills. To sign up or for more information, contact Brian at Hidden Hills at (806)669-5866
