New Palestine High School

New Palestine High School senior Mackenzie Hacker has been named a recipient of the C. Eugene Cato Memorial Scholarship from the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Hacker is one of 13 statewide recipients, and is the first New Palestine student-athlete to receive the prestigious IHSAA scholarship. She will receive a $2,500 scholarship and be recognized at the IHSAA Foundation Impact Awards, which will be held April 12 at the Indianapolis Colts Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center. Hacker earned 12 varsity letters in four sports at NPHS in cross country, track and field, basketball and soccer. She has earned numerous Academic All-State honors in each sport. She currently ranks first in her class with a 4.3 GPA. She is a member of the NPHS student council, Dragon Athletic Leadership and the National Honor Society, while serving as vice president of the Science National Honor Society and treasure of the Spanish National Honor Society. Hacker's community service work includes assisting with numerous youth basketball and soccer camps and clinics, helping with concessions at NPHS sporting events, and serving as the Riley Dance Marathon entertainment and morale coordinator. Mackenzie is the daughter of Bill and Jan Hacker. She plans to attend Butler University. Hacker was chosen out of a field of more than 100 applicants, all of whom met the IHSAA's listed criteria of being a senior enrolled and participating in interscholastic athletics at an IHSAA member school this school year, winning a varsity letter in at least one of the 24 sponsored IHSAA sports, be nominated by the school's principal or athletic director, carry a minimum GPA of 3.0 and have no violations of the school's athletic code of conduct. The recipients were chosen by a panel that included IHSAA commissioner Paul Neidig, former commissioners Bob Gardner and Bobby Cox, IHSAA Foundation chair Phil Eskew Jr., and representatives from the Indiana Pacers and Indianapolis Colts. More than $709,000 has been awarded in the program since it began in 2003-04.