Zachary Warren Cozart was born on August 12, 1985 in Memphis, Tennesee. He did his amateur baseballing at Collierville HIgh School before choosing to go to the University of Mississippi for college ball.
Cozart was a three sport athlete in high school, earning local honors on the hardwood, but excelling especially on the diamonds. He was named All Freshman in year one, and added to those with All-SEC honors in his later years in college. He'd finish his college career with a .310/.367/.473 triple slash.
The Reds selected Cozart in the 2nd round of the 2007 draft and proceeded to basically become the Zack Cozart that we all know and love; that is, flash a good bat while being completely inconsistent with it (or worse, consistently bad for long periods of time) while manning the shortstop position effortlessly.