LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – South Lake Tahoe native and recent Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) graduate, Valery Gonzalez, was awarded the Gene Upshaw Memorial Scholarship during Sunday’s final round of the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe.
Valery, who is headed off to California State University at Chico in August, will be focusing on sports medicine, a passion she developed in the South Tahoe High School (STHS) Sports Medicine program. She said one of her mentors, STHS sports medicine instructor Isaiah Tennaci, helped her begin the journey of pursuing a doctorate in physical therapy.
The scholarship is awarded annually by NBC to a deserving South Shore student who exemplifies the traits that were valued by Upshaw – leadership, community service, paying it forward, and academic excellence.
Valery was selected for her similar traits. She started volunteering for the STHS Soroptimist Club, and then, while at LTCC, she helped create a college-age version, SITSters (using SITS from sponsor, Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra). She has volunteers at the SITS food and beverage booths at the American Century Championship and encouraged her friends to do the same. She then became very active in the LTCC Student Senate and learned how to advocate for change at the local, state, and federal levels.
During the LTCC graduation in June, Valery was recognized as an exceptional student leader and the recipient of the $10,000 Gene Upshaw Memorial Scholarship.
Valery thanked everyone for helping her get to this point in life – learning the value of education, dreaming of something more after high school, and volunteering and giving back.
“SITSters gave me the opportunity to show others the value of volunteering,” said Valery, who has helped in many of the service club’s projects.
Valery said that while applying for the scholarship, she found out about the kind of man Gene Upshaw was. She said he embodied what it means to serve others, exactly the person she wants to be.
This annual award is presented during the celebrity golf tournament in honor of Upshaw, who played in 15 of the events at Lake Tahoe, then had to withdraw from the 2008 American Century Championship as he became sick, and died of pancreatic cancer not long after, in October 2008.
The year following his untimely passing, Gene’s widow, Terri, started the annual scholarship to award local students since Lake Tahoe was such a special place for the couple, as well as a place they called home.
“Gene was a larger-than-life character, an unbelievable person who took me under his wing,” said Gary Quinn, Vice President of Partnerships & General Manager, Owned Properties, NBC Sports Group, during the award ceremony. Quinn said after the former Raiders’ death, they wondered how they could honor him, how they could give back the way Gene would have.
Gary said the Lake Tahoe community is near and dear to his heart for their support of the tournament, and they give back annually through this program and others, including the new batting cages at the South Lake Tahoe Recreation & Aquatics Center in honor of the late Tim Wakefield.
“This was his place to escape from work and all the pressures of his job to be in a community that he loved,” Terri has said. “He absolutely loved Tahoe, loved the people of both north and south of the lake, and really embracing the community here.”
Terri said both she and Gary keep in touch with past recipients of the Gene Upshaw Scholarship to see how they are doing.
Upshaw was a first-round draft pick by the Oakland Raiders, where he played from 1967 to 1981, winning two Super Bowls and playing in six Pro Bowls. Like fellow American Century golfer Jerry Rice, Upshaw made it to the Super Bowl in three different decades, though Upshaw was the first player to do so. After playing, he was the executive director of the NFL Players’ Association.
Gene was admitted to the hospital in Truckee just three days before passing away, not knowing he had pancreatic cancer. Terri started a foundation in his name as well as the cancer center at Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee.
In the photo above, left to right, Gary Quinn, vice president of Partnerships & General Manager, Owned Properties, NBC Sports Group, Terri Upshaw, Gene Upshaw’s widow, Nancy Harrison, executive director, LTCC Foundation, and Valery Gonzalez, recipient of the $10,000 Gene Upshaw Memorial Scholarship.
