Zych Prepares for Captain’s Role

As Collin Zych knows, sometimes something as inconspicuous as a simple letter can change one’s life.

Coming out of high school, the safety was often overlooked as a recruit. A solid career at Plano East High School in Texas led to some interest from Division I-AA schools, and Zych decided that if he was going to play I-AA football, he wanted to play in the Ivy League.

He was strongly pursued by Dartmouth and Columbia, but with excellent grades, Zych had his eyes set on attending Harvard.

“I wasn’t the best recruit,” Zych says. “I wasn’t very proactive about sending highlight tapes and talking to coaches. I think that initially turned [the Crimson] off from me.”

Unwilling to let the opportunity to attend Harvard pass by without at least making an effort, Zych took matters into his own hands. He wrote a letter to head coach Tim Murphy and sent a highlight tape, and from there the interest from the Crimson’s side started to pick up. The team decided to take a chance on the safety.

Fast-forward four years. The awards Zych grew accustomed to in high school haven’t stopped coming. He has been named to the Division I-AA preseason All-America team by Consensus Draft Services, Phil Steele’s College Football Preview, and the FCS Subdivision Senior Scout Bowl selection committee, and was tabbed the Ivy League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year by Lindy’s, The Sports Network, and College Sporting News.

Looking back on where he came from, Zych is humbled by the recognition he has been receiving, but the senior is able to put it in perspective.

“Obviously it’s a great honor to have all of those preseason awards and recognition—to me it’s just a symbol of all the hard work I’ve put in,” he says. “But at the end of the day, it’s all speculation...You don’t want to get too wrapped up in that.”

What happened in between that turned an overlooked recruit from Texas into an Ivy League star?

Zych grew, both as a player and a person.

When the safety arrived at Harvard, he was given a duplicate number, meaning the coaching staff didn’t expect him to play very much. He was going up against guys the Crimson had taken the initiative to pursue and thus were higher on the depth chart.

“Seeing other guys that might’ve been better recruits than me or they were expecting better things from definitely did motivate me,” Zych says. “I just wanted to prove them wrong.”

To do so, Zych got to work. As he labored, the coaching staff that had previously ignored him began to take notice. After not appearing in a game as a freshman, he had earned the starting job at safety by his sophomore year and was named to the All-Ivy Second Team after leading the Crimson in solo tackles.

As a junior, Zych was named first-team All-Ivy by the league’s coaches after finishing first in the conference in pass breakups (12) and passes defended (14) and leading his team in tackles (73) and solo tackles (53). All of a sudden, Collin Zych had made a name for himself.

“I think he’s grown as a player in that every year I think he just feels more confident in his knowledge of his position, how we play as a defense, how everything integrates and coordinates,” Murphy says. “Confidence is critical...He’s a very dependable player.”

“It’s all about preparation,” Zych adds. “Knowing your opponent, knowing what to expect, and just being in the right spot and making plays when you’re there has allowed me to be one of the most consistent players on our defense and for other people to notice.”

It wasn’t just others around the league who sensed Zych’s work ethic and drive. His teammates had taken notice too, and in return, they voted their safety the team’s captain for the 2010 season.

Though Zych knows the responsibility that comes with the distinction, he’s also humbled to have been given such an honor.

“It kind of symbolizes the respect all your teammates and coaches have for you,” he says. “Instead of worrying about yourself, you’re worrying about 110 other guys. So it’s a different kind of role, but it’s a role I enjoy very much.”

Remembering the way a single letter had changed everything for him, Zych decided to write another letter—this time not to Coach Murphy but to his teammates before they returned to school. He made sure to make it personal—not sent via e-mail or Facebook, but by snail mail—and went to lengths to print it on the Harvard letterhead.

“The main message of the letter was that in order to achieve the goals that we have—to go undefeated and win the Ivy League—we all have to be all-in,” Zych says. “Through preparation, training, and just overall mentality, we want to make sure that we have the confidence when we step on the field to know that we are going to beat whoever we are lining up against.”

The reaction to the letter was universally positive.

“I had some teammates come up to me and say they thought it was a good letter,” Zych says. “A lot of people said they got pumped up by it...That was the goal, to get people excited, get people on board. I think it accomplished that.”

Zych has won over the trust and confidence not only of his teammates, but also of the coaching staff that initially was hesitant to recruit him.

“He’s just one of those kids that, regardless of the situation, is extremely poised, confident, and dependable, and both physically and mentally tough,” Murphy says. “It’s definitely his intangibles that really set him apart and really generate the type of respect that is going to allow [him] to be a captain of the Harvard football team. He’s special.”

His coach has called Zych the best safety he’s had in his 17 years coaching the Crimson. But through the entire journey from unknown to stardom, Zych hasn’t changed at all.

“My main focus for this year is just to be a great leader for this team and play as well as I can on game day,” he says. “That’s always been my approach—that’s not going to change because of some recognition.”

In either case, because of a single letter, Collin Zych has finally been recognized.

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.