Gatorade recognizes Ault for leading team to state championship
In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade announced on Thursday that Palmer Ault of Noblesville High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Indiana Boys Soccer Player of the Year. Ault is the first Gatorade Indiana Boys Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Noblesville 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 Ault as Indiana’s best high school boys soccer player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced in June, Ault joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Alexi Lalas (1987-88, Cranbrook High School, Mich.), Steve Cherundolo (1996-97, Mt. Carmel High School, Calif.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy School of Young Women, N.Y.), Heather O’Reilly (2001-02 & 2002-03, East Brunswick High School, N.J.), Matt Besler (2004-05, Blue Valley West High School, Kan.), Jack Harrison (2013-14, Berkshire High School, Mass.) and Mallory Pugh (2014-15, Mountain Vista High School, Colo.).
The 5-foot-11, 170-pound senior midfielder led the Millers to a 20-1-1 record and the Class 3A state championship this past season. Ault tallied 26 goals and 16 assists, including a goal in Noblesville’s 3-1 win over Carmel in the state title game. The unanimous choice as the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association Player of the Year, Ault is also a two-time United Soccer Coaches High School All-American selection. He concluded his prep soccer career with 67 goals and 39 assists.
Ault has volunteered locally at the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville and as a youth soccer coach. He has also donated his time on behalf of multiple community service initiatives through his church. “Noblesville had an incredible season and Palmer Ault was the catalyst for their great success,” said Rob Jordan, head coach of Zionsville Community High School. “He is intuitive and has a great understanding of the game. He was always in the right position at the right time.”
Ault maintained a 3.80 GPA in the classroom. Taking advantage of NCAA early signing rules, Ault inked a financial- aid agreement that paved the way for him to enroll at Butler University. He graduated from high school in December and attended classes in the spring semester.
Ault is the fifth winner of a Gatorade Player of the Year from Noblesville. Other winners and their respective sports are Courtney Cox (girls basketball, 1987-88), Tom Browning (baseball, 1991-92), Ashley Auld (girls soccer, 2007-08) and Ashlynn Shade (2021-22). With Shade and Ault both winning, this is the first time in Noblesville history that two Millers student-athletes have been named Gatorade Player of the Year in their respective sports during the same school year.
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.
Ault joins recent Gatorade Indiana Boys Soccer Players of the Year Zack Bowser (2020-21, Chesterton High School), Chris Freeman (2019-20, Zionsville Community High School), Jack Eaton (2018-19, Chesterton High School), and Andrew Cross (2017-18, Reitz Memorial High School), 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, Ault 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. Ault 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.