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Big Red grad in big spotlight

Collaros looks to lead Winnipeg to a Grey Cup victory this Sunday

Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros checks out the Grey Cup trophy at media day during the CFL's Grey Cup week in Calgary, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. (Todd Korol/The Canadian Press via AP)

CALGARY — Big Red graduate Zach Collaros has been in the Canadian Football League for eight seasons. This one, though, has been different.

An injury early in the season opener sidelined him, and two trades later, Collaros — now a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — sees his 2019 journey end with a chance to play for the Grey Cup on Sunday evening in Calgary. The Blue Bombers square off with one of his former teams, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, at 6:30 p.m.

“There’s definitely been some ups and downs, but it has got me to this point,” he said. “This is the grand stage for this league. We’re obviously very excited about the challenge. I’ll be able to reflect on this year in the offseason and when I’m done playing. But, for now, I’m just trying to live in the moment and focus on that.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’ve been in this moment before when I was a little but younger, and I learned some things through that experience. It’s just a lot of fun. You’re playing against the other best team in the league. It the best of the best, and that’s what you want as a competitor is to play against the best.”

After throwing for 221 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the regular-season finale against Calgary, he has throw, for a combined 460 yards and two more scores in the team’s playoff victories over Calgary and Saskatchewan.

Collaros was part of the 2012 Toronto championship team, though not a starter, and played in the 2014 Grey Cup with Hamilton. Those experiences are something he’s learned from.

“It definitely helps,” Collaros said. “Obviously with the Grey Cup week there’s a lot of different commitments and expectations that you have to deal with throughout the week, which kind of hinders your preparation, but you have to make time to do what you need to do to be ready. Once you’re in the game, after the first whistle blows, it’s just football again. You don’t let yourself get caught up in the moment, read the articles, read the interviews and all that stuff, which I try not to look at. It’s just another football game, and your job is to execute.”

He knows on Sunday, his hometown of Steubenville will be rooting for him.

“It’s awesome. I try to make it home as often as I can and try to keep in touch with as many people as I can back home,” Collaros said. “We’ll have a bunch of people up here for the game. It’s exciting. I love my roots, man. I’m very proud to be where I’m from.”

Collaros won back-to-back state championships in Division III with Big Red in 2005 and 2006. He finished his Steubenville career 30-0 as a starter before moving on to a fine collegiate career with the Cincinnati Bearcats.

“I’ve been very lucky to play on some great football teams with some great teachers, great coaches and great players,” he said. “I’ve definitely had some great fortune.”

“I think to a young player or to anyone that wants to pursue anything in life, the message is you have to care about what you’re doing and what you want to be good at and put the time in. It’s worth it. It’s worth feeling that good feeling to accomplish something that you set out for.”

The perseverance he’s had to have this season, no doubt it comes from his origins.

“Pretty much anything I’ve been through, any kind of trial or situation I’ve gone through, when you come out of the other end of it you can kind of look back on your roots and how you were raised, from my parents on through to the Steubenville school system and my coaches,” Collaros said. “Just those lessons you learn, even when you don’t know you’re learning them at the time, at 6 a.m. when you’re running around Harding Stadium or lifting weights or going to class and doing things when you’re 14, 15 16 years old that the other guys in town aren’t doing. I trace a lot of my personality and how I am able to handle the situations to my parents and my roots at Steubenville High School.”

(Grimm can be reached at agrimm@heraldstaronline.com)

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