Board of Directors

Zina Garrison

Director
Garrison Zena

County Position

08

Originally selected

11/18/2018

Term expires

8/31/2024

Zina Garrison is many things. She was a very successful tennis player, climbing all the way to a top-five ranking in the world, winning an Olympic Gold Medal, and winning almost forty combined singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles, including three Grand Slam trophies.  

She is a successful coach who has bestowed wisdom to a list of great players, including both Williams Sisters. She is a beloved mentor, who once took a fresh-faced fourteen-year-old Venus Williams under her wing and showed her the ropes of the women’s tour. She is a community leader, with a program that has served the city of Houston’s inner-city youth for over 30 years. 

 But before she was any of that, she was another kid in Houston who just enjoyed sports. As the youngest and only girl in her family who took an interest in pursuits of athleticism, she could often be found playing as a catcher for her older brother Rodney, twelve years her senior, in parks of where she grew up in Sunnyside Garden in South Houston. She was a self-proclaimed tomboy and could be found riding bikes with friends through her neighborhood, playing in yards, and even a stint playing softball in high school. 

 At ten years old, driven by a competitive streak that all pro athletes possess, she found the sport of tennis. Fueled by an impressive determination, Garrison soon learned that she was a completely different breed of athlete from her peers, winning her first tennis trophy at a small tournament in Hermann Park, back when it had tennis courts. Coached by Houston tennis legend, John Wilkerson, Zina quickly came to understand that she could see the game differently than most twelve-year-olds. 

 Armed with a steely confidence and seriousness that far outweighed her years, she quickly rose through the ranks of American junior tennis. By the time she was fourteen, she had won the Girls 18 National Title, and by the time she turned pro, she would go on to win the Junior US Open and Junior Wimbledon, as well as being ranked the number-one junior player in the world. 

 Upon her graduation from Sterling High School, the Sunnyside Houston product turned pro and immediately played in her first French Open. She reached the quarterfinals, losing to eventual champion, Martina Navratilova.  

 Zina enjoyed a successful fifteen-career on the women’s tour, staying in the top ten in the year-end international rankings routinely for a large portion of those fifteen years, achieving a career-high ranking of number four in the world at the end of 1989.  

 Her list of accolades is long, spanning an Olympic Gold Medal in doubles at the Seoul Games of 1988 and a Bronze Medal in singles. She has beaten all-time greats, including Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Chris Evert. She has won Wimbledon doubles twice. Most importantly to her, she opened her own free tennis program in 1992, The Zina Garrison Academy, to serve the kids while still a top player in the world. 

 She continues to believe that tennis serves as the gateway to providing young people with all of the skills needed to thrive as a member of his or her community.