Scholarship winner Zabrina Reyes. FACEBOOK
SAN FRANCISCO — Zabrina Reyes of San Diego threw 11 passes into an oversized Dr. Pepper can Saturday, December 6 during halftime of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championship Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
As a result of her throwing accuracy, the University of California -San Diego freshman was awarded $100,000 towards her college tuition.
Reyes revealed that she entered the competition prepared. It was reported that she had built a replica target and practiced three times a week for an entire month. She was even deft enough to grab two footballs at a time from the rack with one in each hand, cutting down her motion time.
“I felt like I could have practiced more, but I guess it was enough,” said a modest Reyes, one of 16 finalists picked out of over 1,700 participants.
Reyes, who is studying arts and sciences, was emotional after the victory, bursting in tears in front of the nationally televised audience. She said the prize money would take some weight off of her and her parents’ shoulders, and that it would “lessen the financial burden,” allowing her to concentrate on her studies.
“I just started crying, that’s all I could do,” Reyes said in a telephone interview via a video story on CBN News 8 with Matt Johnson.
She thanked the soft drink company for the opportunity to participate in the event then thanked her family and friends in both San Diego and Philippines for their support. Many on social media were so impressed with her passing skills that they called for Reyes to play quarterback for their favorite college football team.
“Out of my three sisters I’m like the least athletic, so it’s pretty funny,” said Reyes, who saw the tweets directed her way and admitted the most quarterbacking she would be doing in the future is maybe playing a little toss out in the yard.
In Reyes’ profile page for the contest, she said she would like to “cure ignorance,” “redefine abnormal” and has “always had an itch to understand the people around me.” Part of the scholarship money will also go towards funding school for her younger sister.