Zaria Green Best Southwest Partnership Mayoral Scholarship Recipient
(CEDAR HILL, TEXAS) Less than three months into 2021, Zaria Green was part of not one, but two State Championship experiences.
Green, a scholar manager for the Cedar Hill High School Football, was on the sidelines with the Longhorns in the UIL Class 6A Division II State Football Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Two months later, she traveled to Corpus Christi as a competitor in the Girls State Powerlifting Championships.
In March and April, she competed in the shot put and discus for the Cedar Hill High School Girls Track & Field Team.
“I was grateful to experience it and enjoyed the time I spent with each sport,” Green said.
One of Green’s biggest highlights of 2021 has been an academic one.
This week, she learned that she is the Cedar Hill recipient of a $1,000 Best Southwest Partnership (BSWP) Mayoral Scholarship. Green will use the scholarship funds toward her education at Texas College, a Historically Black College & University (HBCU) in Tyler, where she’ll study Biology.
The Best Southwest Partnership comprises several communities in Southwest Dallas and Northern Ellis County. The Scholarship is presented to one scholar from Cedar Hill as well as fellow BSWP cities Balch Springs, DeSoto, Duncanville, Ferris, Hutchins, Glenn Heights, Lancaster, Ovilla and Wilmer.
Competing in Track& Field at Collegiate Level
Green said she’ll compete in Track & Field at Texas College and may be part of a fledgling Powerlifting Program at the school.
Her long term goal is to earn a Master’s Degree in Kinesiology and become an athletic trainer in the NBA or NFL.
Green ranks 90th in a graduation class of 518. She was surprised, but very grateful to earn the BSWP Scholarship.
A lifelong Cedar Hill resident, Green initially attended private school in Dallas, but she started attending CHISD at Highlands Elementary. She later attended Joe Wilson Intermediate and Permenter Middle School.
“I was a football manager since my sophomore year, and ever since then, I knew I wanted to be an athletic trainer,” Green said. “I fixed helmets and participated with whatever they needed. I traveled with the team and filmed practices with a drone.”
Earlier in her CHHS career, Green participated in cheerleading, basketball and volleyball.
Track & Field had been her main sport since middle school, but powerlifting was something she picked up as a sophomore.
“My track coach said it would be a good idea to help me improve my strength for shot put and discus,” Green said. “Powerlifting needed one additional person for one of their meets, and I thought ‘why not try something new?’”
She qualified for the Powerlifting State Meet as a junior, but it was cancelled due to the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Green has attended classes in-person in 2020-2021 after finishing the 2019-2020 year virtually.
“Going to school helped me a lot because it’s easier to understand in the classroom,” Green said.
