Zaylin Washington’s parents were in and out of jail while he was growing up. He was briefly in foster care. He was homeless. Other students made fun of him because of the condition of his clothes.
The odds were not in his favor, but he found a support system. He joined his school’s football team as a seventh-grade student and played varsity in high school. A church’s youth pastor helped him with shelter.
Washington recently graduated from Nimitz High School in Irving, Texas, with a full academic and athletic scholarship to Feather River College in Quincy, California. He wants to major in kinesiology.
Washington’s dream is to be an expert on the physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, and neuropsychological principles of the human body’s movements to help athletes of all ages — and perhaps even open his own sports center.