UCLA Game Program in PDF Format - GoHuskies.com

ELLIOTT ZAJAC
Continued from page 6
guy.”
Zajac gives much of the credit for his success
in the weight room has to Kaligis and former
strength coach Bill Gillespie.
“Pete Kaligis has become like a brother to
me,” Zajac says. “He always takes care of me.
He stretches me out before practice, and stays
late to work with me after practice. I just really
thank God that he is willing to work that hard
with me.”
Zajac loves lifting so much, in fact, that he
prefers his accomplishments in the weight
room to anything he has done on the field.
“I have squatted 733 pounds, I can bench
press 505, and I have cleaned 401,” he says. “I
am not a one-lift guy. I like to move around. I
love the weight room and the competition in the
weight room.”
Flash back to Aug. 17, 2002. Zajac is lying
on the field, clutching his broken ankle. The
wait for the x-ray results seems interminable,
but when the news comes back, it’s good —
the break is not as serious as originally feared.
Zajac misses the Huskies’ season-opener at
Michigan, but returns to the field a month later
— six weeks after the injury — for the Pac-10
opener with Cal.
“It feels great to be back,” he says. “It sucks
that I had to come back to a loss, but we fought
valiantly. I think once the team gets on track
and we find our identity things are going to
work out really well.”
Now back in the lineup, Zajac can stop reminiscing
about the past, and look forward again
to the future, and the final games of his collegiate
career.
“I want to try to be first-team All-Pac-10,”
he says. “I think that would be a huge accolade.
I obviously have had a little setback and I have
a little catching-up to do.”
No one has a better sense of Zajac’s importance
on the line than Husky center Todd
Bachert, who doubles as Zajac’s roommate.
Zajac was voted a team
captain despite an injury
that kept him off the field
for the season’s first four
games.
“(Dan) Dicks did a good job filling in, but it
is nice to have him back,” Bachert says. “We
were a little off when he first came back but we
are starting to mesh a little bit better. He is really
important to the offensive line. He is a good
leader, and he is intense.”
Every year, the team votes on whom they
think is fit to lead the team both on and off the
field. This season, Zajac was voted by his peers
as one of four team captains, an honor he takes
quite seriously.
“It is hard, because you don’t want to yell
and scream at guys,” he says. “You have to
define your own way of leading, because now
you have been voted a leader by your teammates.
Guys look to me in the huddle to find
motivation, so I have got to stay focused and
keep everybody rolling.”
Given all he has been through, and all he
has accomplished, it would seem that Zajac
needs to say little to be an inspiration to his
teammates.
8 HUSKIES Gameday
Zajac is the lone senior on an
offensive line that boasts one
junior and three sophomores.