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HARLINGEN — When Averie Loya moves to Chicago to attend college, she’ll have a little money to pay for travel expenses and perhaps some of her books.

The Jerry Hirst Memorial Scholarship has seen to that, with a $1,000 scholarship for outstanding tennis players at Harlingen High School.

“I’m very fortunate and blessed to be given this opportunity,” said Averie, 17, who played for four years for the Cardinals.

Four students received $1,000 scholarships this year. The other students were Christopher Hernandez, Olivia Villarreal and Liliana Gomez. The scholarship is named after the late Jerry Hirst who coached tennis at HHS for almost 40 years, said his wife, Alice Hirst.

“It just represents everything that he believed in about how wonderful the sport was to him,” Hirst said. “It provided him with an opportunity to get a college scholarship that in turn allowed him to pursue his profession which he would not have been able to do without a scholarship.”

In like manner, he wanted other students to also have an education to pursue their dreams.

The scholarship will help Christopher Hernandez pursue what he wants in life.

“I feel really honored, because I know it’s a high honor, especially since it comes from the Hirst family,” said Christopher, 18, who plans to attend the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg. He hopes to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration and ultimately become a business owner.

His coach, Jay Tanamachi, sang high praises for the young player.

“He won district in mixed doubles this spring,” Tanamachi said. “As an unseeded team, he and his partner defeated the No. 3 seeds from Hanna, the No. 2 seeds from San Benito, and No. 1 seeds, their teammates from our school.”

Hanna refers to Homer Hanna High School in Brownsville.

“I’ve never seen top three seed taken out by an unseeded team my whole coaching career of 30 years now,” he said. “It was very unexpected and impressive.”

Olivia Villarreal was also a three-time qualifier, he said.

“All four kids made the All-District Team this year and the THSCA Academic All-State Team as well,” he said.

THSCA stands for Texas High School Coaches Association.

The scholarship especially highlights the accomplishment of one Liliana Marie Gomez, 18, who attended Harlingen School of Health Profession while playing tennis for the Cardinals.

She had been in gymnastics for years but decided to switch over tennis in her junior year.

“Tennis has shown me the importance of family and friendship,” Liliana said. “I switched from another sport to tennis and so I went in completely blind and had to start from zero. It showed me the importance of working hard to get really good at a sport in a short amount of time.”

She plans to study business administration at Texas A&M University in College Station.

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