Paradise is Pennsylvania for Puerto Rico Native Carlos Collazo

With our almost daily snow showers and temperatures consistently below 0 degrees you would be hard pressed to convince most people in the Twin Tiers they are living in paradise during this time of year.

But not Carlos Collazo. The 6-8 forward on the Mansfield University men’s basketball team swears Mansfield is as close to paradise as he’s ever been.

Collazo should know paradise when he sees it.  He spent almost every day of his life on the lush tropical island of Puerto Rico where last Saturday his father Jose sat down in the comfort of an 84 degree day in their hometown of Vega Baja and listened to his son play over the internet broadcast of Mansfield’s 53-50 win over West Chester. Exactly 1,728 miles to the north, it was -2 outside Decker Gymnasium and the coldest day Collazo had experienced in his life – but he never felt warmer then he did after the final buzzer sounded.

Jimmy Buffett probably had some place like Vega Baja in mind when he wrote “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.” Situated on the north central coast of Puerto Rico, Vega Baja has a beautiful beach and is about 40 minutes away from the capital of San Juan. 

But while your attitude is supposed to improve the further south you go in Buffett’s songs, it been just the opposite for Collazo's life.

It’s been a long strange road to Mansfield for Collazo with basketball and a couple of former marine buddies playing the key role.

“I was a swimmer when I was younger,” explains Collazo. “And I won three gold medals in the Puerto Rico Games. When I was 12 years old I was 5-4 but by the time I was 14 I was 6-2 and people said I should play basketball. I had grown tired of swimming, so I decided to give basketball a chance.”

Collazo soon mastered the sport and got a break when Missouri Southern was in Puerto Rico for an exhibition game three years ago. After watching him play, the coaches at Missouri Southern were impressed enough to offer him a scholarship.

“I had only been off the island only once before I went to Missouri Southern,” said Collazo. “And that was to Disney World when I was 12 years old. I adjusted to the cold weather there, but never really adjusted to their style of basketball.”

He was so frustrated that he left Missouri Southern and planned to transfer to a college in Puerto Rico before the opportunity came to play at Mansfield.

“My coach in Puerto Rico served in the military with our assistant coach Nate Davis when they were both stationed in Puerto Rico and told Nate about me,” explained Collazo.

Davis, a former two-time All-PSAC East football player at Mansfield, has been an assistant basketball coach for the Mountaineers over the last four seasons and quickly informed head coach Vince Alexander he had a prospect.

If Collazo was interested in a new home, Alexander was interested in a 6-8 forward. It seemed like a good match even if neither party had seen the other before.  

“We just graduated three players who were 6-7 or taller and didn’t have a lot of height on the roster,” said Alexander. “We were looking hard, but there weren’t a lot of players that big out there so we were very interested in Carlos.”

Collazo moved to Mansfield during summer and liked it so much he sent for his younger sister Carmina to join him with her twin sons in September, followed by his mother Armina in December.

“We are all very happy here,” said Carlos. “My mother, she loves the snow although she’s not used it being so cold. She thinks the snow is so beautiful and my sister found a job in Wellsboro so this has now become our home.”

Coach Alexander is happy Carlos is happy and even happier he continues to improve as a player. “We haven’t seen the best of Carlos yet – not by a long shot,” reports Alexander. “He is just getting used to the way we play and we’re getting used to the way he plays. He is a big key for our playoff plans.”

But the season didn’t start off as Collazo or Alexander had expected. Just before the opening game of the season, Collazo passed out during practice. Initially it was thought he suffered from mono, but a follow up physical showed symptoms of an enlarged heart that forced Collazo to miss the first three games of the season and play sparingly in the following seven.

But the past seven games have been different. Finally healthy and in shape, Collazo is leading the team in scoring and rebounding over that span averaging 15.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game over that span and connecting on better than 60% of his shots.

He currently ranks sixth in the PSAC in offensive rebounds, eighth in shooting percentage (53.3) and 15^th in overall rebounds.

More importantly, he is doing well academically as – what else – a Spanish education major and is on track to graduate next May.  

“I’m so thankful to everyone for the opportunity to be here,” said Collazo. “Getting a degree from a school like Mansfield is a very big deal in Puerto Rico if I decide to go back there. But for now, Mansfield is my home and this is where I will find my future. To me, paradise is opportunity and right now there is no better paradise than Mansfield.”