March 22, 2018

Competition runs in Zach Collaros’ family

WINNIPEG — Zach Collaros has a competitive streak a mile wide.

Apparently, he comes by it honestly.

“My mom (Michelle) is probably more competitive than I am,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback said with a grin Thursday during Mark’s CFL Week. “To this day, if we’re playing euchre, she won’t play on my team just because she wants to beat me.

“She gives me the dirtiest looks ever when I’m winning or I’m going to win. I almost try to avoid it now when I go home for holidays. I’m like, ‘Mom, I don’t want to fight with you.’ But I can’t help myself when we’re playing; I have to say something. She’s the same way.”

Since the day Collaros was traded to the Roughriders by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Jan. 3, the first thing people have talked about when discussing the 29-year-old product of Steubenville, Ohio, is his competitive nature.

Roughriders slotback Bakari Grant (who played with Collaros in Hamilton) previously said that Collaros “is probably one of the most competitive people I’ve ever played with.” Guard Peter Dyakowski (another of Collaros’ former Tiger-Cats teammates) said the quarterback “was always the most competitive” table tennis player in Hamilton’s locker room.

On Thursday, others echoed that sentiment.

“We’re getting a high-character guy,” said Roughriders defensive back Ed Gainey, who was in Hamilton with Collaros. “We’re getting somebody who definitely wants to win and has that fire in him to win and compete day in and day out.”

“He’s definitely a great competitor,” offered Toronto quarterback Ricky Ray, one of Collaros’ teammates during his days with the Argonauts. “You notice that right away with him. He really loves to compete, he takes it very seriously and he puts a lot of time into it.”

“He has got a gritty competitiveness to him that will come through,” added Tiger-Cats receiver Luke Tasker. “And in a city like Regina, they’re going to embrace a guy like that.”

So that’s what Roughriders fans have to look forward to. As Collaros put it Thursday when asked about his competitive drive: “I just always wanted to win.”

As proof, he recalled a soccer game from his youth. His team was winning and he had scored four goals when his coach — his father, Dean — pulled Zach from the game.

“I yelled, ‘Why did you take me out?’ and he said, ‘Go sit on the bench,’ ” Collaros said. “He coached me a little bit more in basketball after that but to this day, he’s like, ‘That just wasn’t going to work.’ ”

Zach estimated he was six or seven years old at the time.

It’s just how he’s wired.

“I just always wanted to go, go, go no matter what sport it was,” he continued. “Then we’d get home from that sport and I’d go out in the neighbourhood and play something else.

“I don’t know if it’s different now for kids, but in our neighbourhood, if you lost, you couldn’t play — so you had to win. I had some God-given talents, so I guess that competitiveness would keep me on the court.”

Or the football field. Or the baseball diamond. Or the soccer pitch. Or whatever the sporting venue.

That said, Collaros’ competitiveness also could be a little tough for his family to take.

He can remember reunions when his mom got mad at him for trying too hard. His younger siblings (sister Lanae and brother Dimitrios) sometimes bore the brunt — and once it even affected his elderly grandmother.

“We were playing softball and I got her out when she was running to first,” Collaros recalled with a sheepish grin. “I got pissed off because they didn’t call her out. I’m like, ‘What do you mean? She’s out!’ They’re like, ‘Zach, shut up.’

“I’ve learned to harness that for sure — and I’ve learned the hard way.”

After hearing the story about Collaros and his grandma, Gainey started laughing … and nodding.

“That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “We can’t give anybody passes. Everybody gets it. You step between those lines, you’re going to get outworked, man.”

And that’s what Gainey expects from Collaros. The DB remembers the QB as a player who looks to correct his mistakes before anyone else can mention them, who will do extra work in the film room or who will work on routes with receivers after practice to perfect their timing.

“I know he’s going to give us his best every time he steps on the field,” Gainey said. “I wouldn’t want someone to not have that mindset because that’s pretty much the mindset I have.”

Even so, it hasn’t always worked for Collaros. He enters the 2018 season having lost 12 straight games as a starter, dropping his career record to 24-27-0.

In 2017, the Tiger-Cats replaced him as their No. 1 quarterback with Jeremiah Masoli after starting the season with eight consecutive losses. Hamilton posted a 6-4-0 record with Masoli under centre and with Collaros on the bench.

Collaros admitted he saw the writing on the wall in Hamilton, so he was thrilled to get an opportunity in another CFL city. Now comes the task of returning to the form he showed before suffering a knee injury midway through the 2015 campaign.

“I’m excited to play good football with a staff that believes in me, and I feel like that’s Coach (Chris) Jones and his guys,” Collaros said. “It’s an amazing group of talent on the team.

“I’m just approaching it how I always approach things — except with an even bigger chip on my shoulder than I already had.”