CHICAGO (June 29, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced
Ramy Ayoub of
Farmington High School is the
2021-22 Gatorade Minnesota Boys Track & Field Player of the Year. Ayoub is the first Gatorade Minnesota Boys Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Farmington 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 Ayoub as Minnesota's best high school boys track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Player of the Year award to be announced in July, Ayoub 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 (2014- 15 & 2013-14, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).
The 5-foot-10, 150-pound senior broke a meet record at the Class AAA state meet in the 400-meter dash this past season and his record-setting time of 47.34 seconds ranked No. 51 nationally among prep competitors in 2022 at the time of his selection. Ayoub's best 800-meter run mark of 1:51.96 at the South Suburban Conference Championship meet ranked No. 58 in the country this spring.
Ayoub has volunteered locally on behalf of Feed My Starving Children and community beautification projects. "What makes Ramy so special is his versatility," said Jeff Flugum, head coach of Apple Valley High School. "Not only is he versatile, he has top-end talent no matter the event he decides to run."
Ayoub has maintained a weighted 3.79 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete on an athletic scholarship at the University of Minnesota 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 leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.
Ayoub joins recent Gatorade Minnesota Boys Track & Field Players of the Year Marcus Hansen (2020-21, Waseca High School), AJ Green (2019-20 & 2018-19, Eastview High School), and Samuel Moore (2017-18, BerthaHewitt/Verndale), among the state's list of former award winners.
Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade's "Play it Forward" platform, Ayoub has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. Ayoub is also eligible to submit a short 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 $3.5 million across more than 1,300 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 or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.
