Palatine Pack Senior Scholarships
Each year, the Palatine Pack TFCC club honors two graduating seniors - one male and one female - with our Palatine Pack Senior Scholarship. This scholarship is for graduating athletes who plan to participate in track and field and/or cross country on the collegiate level. These awards are given to athletes who best represent our values of fun, fundamentals, and community while also reaching a high level of achievement. Each athlete must have attended one or more Palatine Pack TFCC camps during their career to be eligible.
The Palatine Pack Senior Scholarship is funded by a partnership between The Pack TFCC and Elevate Physical Therapy and Performance Training. Each recipient receives a $1,000 monetary award toward their college education. Marc Ginsberg and Jaime Bartoli Ginsberg serve athletes throughout the northwest suburbs as they build their athletic careers or rehabilitate from injury.
Future scholarship awards will be based on an application. Since we had relatively few participants in the early years of the club, the Board of Directors decided to simply award these inaugural scholarships. Going forward, the application process will include a paragraph essay on how the athlete lives our values of fun, fundamentals, and community while also reaching a high level of achievement. We will also include coach recommendations in the process.
2025 Female Scolarship Winner
Ayisha Kazeem (Palatine High School)
We are excited to announce Ayisha Kazeem as our inaugural female winner of the Palatine Pack Senior Scholarship. Ayisha attended Winston Campus Junior High during her eighth grade year, but her middle school track and field sessions were cut short by Covid cancellations. With no school track and field season, she decided to participate in our second session ever in April 2021. She first started to sprint, long jump, and hurdle during this session and quickly flashed her potential. Both Coach Soto and Coach Quick recall pulling her aside and telling her, “When you get to high school, there is this event called the 300 meter intermediate hurdles and it is going to be a great fit for you.” The rest is history.
Above: Palatine girls track and field head coach Kevin Conway (left) poses with Ayisha Kazeem and assistant coach Ricky Ruano to celebrate her scholarship.
From those beginnings, Ayisha has become one of the greatest athletes in Palatine High School’s long history of excellence in women’s track and field. Under the direction of head coach Kevin Conway and event coach Ricky Ruano, Ayisha emerged as one of the finest hurdlers in the state. Check out her progression in the two hurdle events:
100 meter high hurdles - 18.84 (9th grade), 14.43 (10th grade), 14.34 (11th grade)
300 meter intermediate hurdles - 46.85 (9th grade), 43.48 (10th grade), 42.91 (11th grade)
Ayisha is a 3-time IHSA Class 3A state qualifier in the 300 intermediate hurdles and a 2-time IHSA Class 3A state qualifier in the 100 meter high hurdles. She has finished as an All-State medalist four times, including a state championship in the 300 hurdles in 2024. That time placed her within the top 100 times run nationally in 2024. Her other All-State finishes include a runner-up in the 300 hurdles (2023), a 7th place finish in the 100 hurdles (2024), and a 6th place finish in the 100 hurdles (2023). She is the school record holder in both hurdle events.
In addition, Ayisha has contributed mightily to the relay and field event groups at Palatine. She owns a PR of 17’ 10.25” in the long jump and has consistently been the anchor leg on 4 x 100, 4 x 200, and 4 x 400 relay teams. Ayisha is widely respected on her team for her quiet leadership. She is kind, respectful, and hard-working.
Beyond the track, Ayisha is widely-respected in the Palatine High School community. An immigrant from Nigeria, she has emerged from English Language Learning classes to achieve a 3.25 grade point average. Although she has not committed to a college for track and field yet, she is leveraging offers from Ball State and Eastern Illinois University.
We are incredibly proud of how Ayisha has grown in the sport from a timid, but talented 8th grader, to a dominant hurdler on the state-wide scene. From learning the fundamentals of track to becoming an expert practitioner, we have never failed to notice her positive attitude and the consistent progress she has made across her time at Palatine. We cannot think of a more fitting awardee for our inaugural scholarship than Ayisha Kazeem. Congratulations!
2025 Male Scholarship Winner
Carter Hayes (Palatine High School)
We are honored to present Carter Hayes as the inaugural male winner of the Palatine Pack Senior Scholarship. Carter attended Walter Sundling Junior High in Palatine and became connected with Palatine Pack TFCC after his 8th grade season was cut short due to Covid. Carter participated in our April 2021 spring session, and he flashed his potential immediately. I was struck by his resemblance to Palatine Pack coach Alec Bollman, who was a state champion for Palatine in the 1600 meter run. In limited opportunities, Carter ran near 5:40 in the 1600 during that session while showing a lot of potential for growth.
He has fulfilled that potential in both cross country and track and field at Palatine High School. Always a speedy athlete, Carter committed to the consistent, hard work of becoming an all-around distance runner and that work has paid enormous dividends. This positive attitude enabled him to flourish under Palatine coaches Joe Parks, Mike Nigliaccio, and Alec Bollman. Here are his career progressions in his main events:
Above: Palatine assistant boys cross country coach Mike Nigliaccio (left), Carter Hayes, and assistant track and field coach Alex Bollman pose after Carter received his scholarship award.
3 mile cross country - 17:14 (9th grade), 15:33 (10th grade), 15:07 (11th grade), 14:43 (12th grade)
800 meter run - 2:06.81 (9th grade), 1:58.36 (10th grade), 1:53.58 (11th grade), 1:57.49 (12th grade - indoor)
1600 meter run - 4:38.35 (9th grade), 4:22.04 (10th grade), 4:18.04 (11th grade), 4:17.82 (12th grade - indoor)
3200 meter run - 10:12.37 (9th grade), 9:44.13 (10th grade), 9:19.15 (11th grade), 9:10.50 (12th grade - indoor)
Carter earned All-State honors in the IHSA Class 3A 800 meter run in 2024 with a huge personal best of 1:53.58. That breakthrough followed a consistent few seasons of performances that saw him qualify to the IHSA state meets in cross country and track and field multiple times. He was a scorer on the 2022 Palatine team that won the IHSA Class 3A Hoffman Estates Sectional, and he has twice run on teams that finished Top 10 in the IHSA Class 3A state cross country meet (2022 - 9th place, 2024, 8th place). His highest cross country finish at the IHSA state meet was 35th in 2024. In addition, Carter owns numerous school records at Palatine in track and field, including the 4 x 800 (varsity indoor), 4 x 800 (F/S outdoor), and 3200 meter run (varsity indoor).
Beyond his personal achievements, Carter is noted for his leadership, his work ethic, and his playfulness. He trains consistently and year-round, which sets a great example for the younger distance athletes in the program. His ability to put hard work together with ambition marks him as one of the All-Time Greats in the Palatine program. He also takes the sport seriously but facilitates a sense of fun within the program. Such a spirit is in keeping with the culture that legendary Palatine coach Joe Johnson established throughout his tenure in the program.
Carter has signed an athletic scholarship to compete next year at Western Kentucky University. We are proud of everything that he accomplished at Palatine High School and are indebted to him for helping establish a strong tradition of distance running within the Palatine Pack TFCC. Congrats to Carter and best of luck during the outdoor season and in your college career!
Elevate Physical Therapy
The Palatine Pack Senior Scholarship is made possible by a partnership with Jaime Bartoli Ginsberg and Marc Ginsberg at Elevate Physical Therapy in Arlington Heights. Jaime and Marc provide training and treatment to many athletes from all sports in their facility, but they are especially experienced in working with cross country and track and field athletes.
Elevate Physical Therapy provides specialized one on one patient care in a comfortable, state of the art facility. Their goal is to help patients in the community achieve their goals and live an active lifestyle. They believe that Movement is Life!
As a healthcare leader they also partner with groups and events within the communities we serve. Our focus on continuing education for our physical therapists is unmatched. Our therapists understand and put into practice cutting-edge treatments and rehabilitation techniques for all injuries and conditions.
Above: Jaime Bartoli Ginsberg (center) presents Carter Hayes and Ayisha Kazeem with the inaugural Palatine Pack Senior Scholarships. These twin $1,000 awards were made possible by a partnership between Palatine Pack TFCC and Elevate Therapy in Arlington Heights.
