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CHICAGO (July 2, 2021) - In its 36th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Brooke Rauber of Tully High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade New York Girls Track & Field Player of the Year. Rauber is the first Gatorade New York Girls Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Tully High School.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Rauber as New York's best high school girls track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Player of the Year award to be announced in July, Rauber joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles Baptist High School, Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2013-14 & 2014-15, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).
The 5-foot-5 senior won four individual championships at the Section 3 championships this past season. The state's reigning Gatorade Player of the Year in girls cross country, Rauber broke the tape in the 400-meter dash, the 800- meter run, the 1500-meter run and the 2000-meter steeplechase. Her season-best time of 6:45.53 in the steeplechase ranked as the nation's No. 2 performance among prep girls competitors in 2021. Rauber also clocked the nation's No. 4 time in the 5000 (16:32.62), No. 5 in the 1500 (4:24.34) and No. 6 in the 3000 (9:38.89).
Rauber has volunteered locally on behalf of the Friendly Acres 4-H Club, Helping Hounds Dog Rescue and youth running programs. "Brooke Rauber is one of the best female runners I've ever seen at the high school level," said Greg Broton, coach at Cicero-North Syracuse High. "She's a very talented, very strong young lady who has some really good years ahead of her."
Rauber has maintained an A average in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at North Carolina State University this fall.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
Rauber joins recent Gatorade New York Girls Track & Field Players of the Year Katelyn Tuohy (2019-20, 2018-19, & 2017-18, North Rockland High School), and Sammy Watson (2016-17, Rush-Henrietta Senior High School), among the state's list of former award winners.
Through Gatorade's cause marketing platform "Play it Forward," Rauber has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Rauber is also eligible to submit a 30-second video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners' grants have totaled more than $2.7 million across 1,117 organizations.
Since the program's inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.