Student golfers from 10 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Universities, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh will participate in the 23rd Edward P. Zemprelli Collegiate Shootout as a prelude to the annual Bob Burgess-Thomas McCormac charity golf outing to be held June 4 at the Hershey Country Club.

The collegiate golfers will tee off at approximately 7:30 a.m. on the Hershey East Course. They will play one 18-hole round under National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules. The shootout will conclude around noon, after which the charity portion of the event will begin. The student athletes will be competing for at least $6,000 in scholarships for their schools. Prizes worth $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 will go to the general scholarship funds of the schools of the top three finishers.

This year’s field will include two returning players, including 2006 winner Dominic Frassinelli of Allentown, a senior at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Trey M. Mallicone of Shippensburg, a senior at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, also will be participating again.

Students who will be competing for the first time are Eric Linder of Landsdale, a junior at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania; Eric Smith of Lancaster, a sophomore at California University of Pennsylvania; Jared Schmeder of Cooperstown, a freshman at Clarion University of Pennsylvania; Brandin Deets of Titusville, a junior at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; Cory W. Stelick of Groton, N.Y., a junior at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Krista Tressler of Fayetteville, a junior at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania; Jonathan Kresge of Lock Haven, a junior at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania; Darryn Deshong of Chambersburg, a junior at Millersville University of Pennsylvania; Victoria Arena of Lansdale, a freshman at Penn State; and Frank Colwell of Apollo, a senior at Pitt.

The Burgess-McCormac charity golf outing has been held each year since 1985. Since its inception, the event has raised more than $2 million for various charities and charitable organizations, including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research and the Penn State Medical Center Children’s Hospital project.

The annual outing began as a memorial to Bob Burgess, a government relations specialist for Beneficial Financial Management. He and a daughter, Pamela, died in an automobile accident in 1983. The event was renamed in 2002 to also memorialize Thomas McCormac, a government relations specialist with Pugliese Associates. McCormac died in an automobile accident in 2001.

In addition to the three scholarships for which the student golfers compete, the Burgess-McCormac Memorial Foundation, which operates the event, also contributes a separate $3,000 scholarship each year to Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where Pamela Burgess had been a student.

With more than 110,000 students, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth.The 14 PASSHE universities offer degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Approximately 405,000 PASSHE alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. PASSHE also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Freeport, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg.