Neena Pacholke: The ‘Brightest Light In The Room’

Former Freedom High basketball star Neena Pacholke, who was a popular news anchor for WAOW-TV in Wausau, WI, tragically took her own life on Aug. 27.

There was something about Neena Pacholke that made you feel special and loved.

The smile, the laugh, the joy. 

“She had this bright, awesome personality that just made you feel so welcomed,” said Lauren Repp, a longtime friend and former basketball teammate. “She had a special charm.”

Charm may be the best word to describe Neena’s personality, as she had it in abundance, according to those who played basketball with her, or watched her as a television anchor where, judging from the outpouring of love following her death, she could radiate from the screen and make you feel as if you’ve been friends for years.

Neena, who played high school basketball at Freedom High and then at the University of South Florida, took her own life Aug. 27 in her Wausau, WI, home. She was only 27.

Neena’s life was celebrated at Radiant Church Heights in Tampa on Sept. 10. She is survived by her sister Kaitlynn, father Aaron and mother Laurie, who coached her at Freedom.

“Absolutely devastated,” wrote Aaron on Facebook. “She was a great gift.”

Neena’s death was shocking to most who knew her. However, Laurie told WAOW-TV News 9 in Wausau, where her daughter was a popular anchor, that Neena had struggled with mental health issues for years. 

“She was getting treatment,” Laurie said. “I’ll put it out there — she had been to the crisis center a couple of times. She had so many people here to talk to. She talked to people, but she didn’t want anybody to know how she was hurting, so she didn’t talk until it got so bad.” 

That part is what makes it so painful for friends like Repp, who met Neena when they were 12 years old.

“It’s hard to wrap my head around,” Repp said. “Just hearing that maybe it was because she felt like a burden to others, it breaks my heart. All of us are living with the what-ifs and are absolutely crushed and devastated.”

Neena was the “ideal American girl” in high school, who would get excited over coffee, loved the changing seasons and buying a new sweater or boots. She painted her nails on the Fourth of July and St. Patrick’s Day and loved being with her cat, says Faith Woodard who, along with Repp, were teammates of Neena’s.

The Pacholke family in happier times: (l.-r.) Laurie, Kaitlynn, Neena and Aaron. (Photo: Pacholke family Facebook page)

The three were starters on the 2013 Freedom High team that made the program’s only State final four appearance. Woodard said she has been watching old game films since receiving the news. 

The gritty, tenacious Neena was the Patriots’ point guard, and even watching old games today, Woodard said she can feel her energy and glee.

“She was the glue on that team,” Woodard said. “She was everyone’s biggest cheerleader. But, she was more than just your teammate. She was your friend
She was the happiest person I knew, and the best person I knew.”

After graduating from USF in 2017, she joined WAOW-TV as a reporter. At her service at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Weston, WI, on Sept. 4, one of her first friends at the station, Josh Holland, shared with an in-person audience of roughly 200 what a joy Neena had been. Together, the two rookie reporters went to high school pep rallies, sported silly socks, challenged high school athletes to Nerf football games and played life-size games of Hungry Hungry Hippos against students. “She went to great lengths to bring joy to others,” Holland said. 

She was promoted to anchor in 2019 and her popularity grew. Following her death, the station’s phone lines and Facebook page were flooded with condolence calls and sadness from people who only knew her through a screen, her personality breaking through that barrier.

When WAOW-TV had technical difficulties and couldn’t broadcast her memorial service live, it didn’t stop more than 22,000 people from watching when it was posted a day later.

Brendan Mackey wrote that being Neena’s co-anchor was an honor and called her, “The brightest light in the room.”

Friends like Repp and Woodard will never forget Neena. Not only did Faith transfer to Freedom for her senior season because of Neena, she followed her into broadcasting, and is currently an anchor for KTHV-TV (THV11) in Little Rock, AR.

“I always tried to be more like her,” Woodard said. “I tried to volunteer more because she did. I tried to do the good things she did and I even tried to make my work (as a news anchor) look more like hers. More than anything, I’m going to miss her for the good, supportive person she was.”

Repp said Neena’s loss will be felt by many. She well remembers her friend always wiggling her way out of running at the end of basketball practices, never taking anything too seriously and always being able to break the tension by laughing or giggling about something.

Repp said she was recently at a Milwaukee Brewers game when the ladies sitting behind her found out she played basketball in Tampa with Neena. 

“They started freaking out,” Repp says. “They told me they loved her.”

It is a feeling shared by many.

Spotlight On: Bounty Hunters Basketball!

The Bounty Hunters, a local AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) competitive basketball program, is hosting tryouts for its girls travel teams on Sunday, October 23, and invites girls in grades 5-11 in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel to try out for the squad. 

Coach Max Guevara (photo, with assistant coach Jess Cumba), who played AAU ball when he was a kid (“Which probably saved my life,” he says, since he grew up in one of the worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia) and in various adult leagues, played an assistant coach role with other organizations and the feedback he received from other parents was always overwhelmingly positive. 

“When you hear; ‘You should have your own team’ enough times, you start to consider it,” Guevara says. “It frustrated me seeing my own daughter go from program to program being told what to do but not being shown how to do it. About a year ago, I contacted the AAU to see what it would take to start my own club.”

Guevara sought corporate sponsorship for 6 months, but says he was told by corporate CEOs and general managers that, “‘No one cares about girls’ basketball’ and that they failed to see the return on their investment. So, I funded the Bounty Hunters out of my own pocket.  We ran our first camp this past summer and it sold out in less than 2 weeks.”

The Bounty Hunters is a year-round program, but from March to August, Guevara says his Junior Varsity (JV) and Varsity teams will travel in and out of the state, participating in tournaments against the best their age group has to offer.  “We also teach these kids to be productive members of the community through volunteering and teaching them respect, communication skills, self-esteem and even money management,” he says. 

The Bounty Hunters JV team is for girls in grades 5-8, and the Varsity team is for girls in grades 9-11. A total of 13 players per travel team will be selected, although the program also offers a Developmental Team. 

The tryouts to be held on Oct. 23 will be free of charge. “As a nonprofit organization, we must rely of the generosity of the community to survive,” Guevara says. “You can help us keep this going by making a contribution on our website (BountyHunterBasketball.com).” For more details, please email info@bountyhunterbasketball.com.