Athlete of the Week: Maria Christian, Cedarville

For her efforts, Christian was named the Dayton Daily News Athlete of the Week for Feb. 23 through Feb. 28, earning the honor through reader voting at DaytonDailyNews.com.

“I was pretty proud of myself after I heard,” Christian said. “I didn’t get that alone. My teammates were there to help me to accomplish that big victory against Fort Loramie.”

This is the second Athlete of the Week win for the Christian family. Her brother, Isaiah, was a winner last November.

“He is an extremely good football player, so when I heard about that I was really happy for him,” she said. “And then when I got nominated I was really excited hoping I could win this time and that we could both get the accomplishment.”

Maria was a standout in one of the biggest wins in Cedarville history.

The Fort Loramie victory secured the first district championship in the history of Cedarville’s girls program.

Christian made several free throws in the final moments to keep one of the area’s storied small school programs at an arms reach.

“It was a very back-and-forth game. I think we wanted it more and we played our hearts out,” she said.

In the first three tournament wins for Cedarville, Christian is averaging 23.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.3 steals per game.

She earned first team Ohio Heritage Conference South Division recognition and Division VII All-Southwest District honors.

Christian said part of her daily motivation comes from former WNBA player Brandie Hoskins, a Chaminade-Julienne grad and Dayton native who has helped train her since fifth grade.

“She just always pushes me to my limits and I feel like that’s really where I get a lot of how I play,” Christian said. “She’s encouraged me to just always be positive and always go as much as you can go until you just can’t anymore.”

That mindset could be applied to her Indians team which has advanced to the D-VII, Region28 final. The Cinderella moniker could be applied to Cedarville, she said.

One of her favorite ever game outcomes was an overtime win against rival Greeneview, but cutting down the nets may immediately eclipse it and any others.

Christian and her teammates have already made school history, no matter the final outcome of Cedarville’s season. She’s happy to be a contributor to their success.

“When we got to cut down the net after Fort Loramie, it was just a feeling of, ‘oh my goodness I actually did this, our team actually did this’, she said ”And now that feeling of knowing that we’re gonna get a 2026 district banner was just like an overload of happiness.”

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