MSL to NFL: Zbikowski Bringing Higher Education to Brown Football Secondary
Hoffman, Triton Women's Basketball Star Wilson Headed to Tusculum; Harper Women's Basketball Gets New Coach, Baseball Earns Academic Award
Brown University football safeties are receiving a higher secondary education degree with the addition of Tom Zbikowski to the coaching staff.
The All-American from Buffalo Grove and Notre Dame and five-year NFL veteran defensive back officially started his new job as an assistant coach for the safeties at the Ivy League school in Providence, R.I., last week. Zbikowski will also recruit the Chicago area and the U.S. west of the Mississippi River.
Zbikowski, who graduated from Buffalo Grove in 2003, was a defensive quality control assistant coach at Western Michigan last season.
"We are excited about the addition of Tom to the staff," Brown coach James Perry said in a release from the school. "He has proven himself to be a terrific football coach and his experiences at the highest level in the NFL and college football will benefit our players."
Zbikowski was a dynamic quarterback and safety who led BG to consecutive Class 7A quarterfinal appearances and a Mid-Suburban East title as a senior in 2002. At Notre Dame, he was a two-time All-American and team captain and a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, which is given every year to the nation’s best defensive back. In 2007 he helped the Fighting Irish secondary rank third in the nation in pass defense.
Zbikowski was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the third round of the 2008 NFL draft and played in 56 games for them as a defensive back and kick returner. He was an AFC alternate for the 2009 Pro Bowl and helped the Ravens rank fourth in the NFL in pass defense in 2011. He spent 2012 with the Indianapolis Colts and was in training camp with the Bears in 2013 when his career came to an end.
Zbikowski also enjoyed a professional boxing career from 2006-2020, going undefeated in his career and competing in bouts at Madison Square Garden, Las Vegas MGM Grand and Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. He also spent three years as a member of the Chicago Fire Department as a firefighter and EMT.
Brown was 3-7 last year and 2-8 in 2021 and 2019 as the Ivy League didn’t play a 2020 season because of COVID. Its last winning season was 6-4 in 2013. The Bears open their season on Sept. 16 at Bryant.
Hoffman’s Wilson to Play Basketball at Tusculum
Monraia Wilson, a four-year starter at Hoffman Estates and third-team NJCAA All-American at Triton College, is continuing her basketball career at Division II Tusculum University in Greeneville, Tennessee.
The 5-foot-7 Wilson was Triton’s first women’s All-American in 29 years as she averaged 14.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4 assists per game and had 98 steals. Wilson was a Daily Herald All-Area pick for Hoffman in 2017 who averaged 15 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists per game. She finished her high school career with nearly 1,000 points.
Tusculum was 20-9 last season and in 2020-21 went 19-4, was ranked 18th in the country in Division II and won a first-round NCAA tournament game.
Harper College Women’s Basketball, Baseball News
Harper College named Romel Bryant as the new women’s basketball coach and the baseball team was an American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) 2022-23 Team Academic Excellence Award winner.
Bryant came to Harper from Olive Harvey where it won the 2023 City College Conference title and was the NJCAA Region IV runner-up. He was also a successful high school and semi-pro coach and played at Hales Franciscan High School and Beloit College before an injury in a car accident ended his career.
Bryant inherits a Harper women’s program that went 3-19 last season. His goal is to help players succeed beyond the high school level.
"With only an estimated 3.5% of all high school athletes playing college basketball, my goal is to give an opportunity to those that were overlooked,” Bryant said on the Harper website. “My goal is to find some of the best talent from the 96.5% that's left behind and offer them a chance to flourish as student athletes."
The Hawks’ baseball team compiled a 3.147 team GPA during the 2022-2023 school year, and were one of 48 junior college programs nationwide (only 5 in Illinois) to receive the ABCA award.
"I'm really proud of our guys for taking care of business in the classroom," said Harper head coach Nelson Gord, a 1999 Buffalo Grove graduate, on the school website. "Their commitment to improving themselves on and off the field speaks volumes about the type of player that we love to have on our squad.
"We're really fortunate to have the support of our administration, namely Steve Hayes, for pouring into our guys and making sure that they stay on track, take the right classes, and continue to progress towards a degree."
Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2022-23 academic year.
Barrington’s Ojuri Guides Illinois State Running Game
Sam Ojuri knows a little bit about running the football. Ojuri gained more than 1,400 yards as a Daily Herald All-Area pick for Barrington’s 2008 Class 8A quarterfinalist, had nearly 4,000 career yards for three consecutive Football Championship Subdivision national championship teams at North Dakota State and spent some time in the Canadian Football League.
Ojuri is starting his fourth season coaching the running backs at Illinois State, which is coming off a 6-5 season. Ojuri also spent two years as an offensive graduate assistant coach with the tight ends and fullbacks at Wyoming, where he worked for his Craig Bohl, his coach at North Dakota State, and he also coached running backs and wide receivers at Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Two Area Sports Voices Silenced Too Soon
The Chicago-area sports broadcasting community was hit hard last week with the unexpected deaths of Alvin Washington Jr. and Mark Krueger.
Washington died last weekend after a brief illness at 51. He had worked Triton women’s and men’s basketball, volleyball and baseball games since 2019. In a nice tribute by J. Coyden Palmer on jcoydenreports.com, Buffalo Grove grad John Clancy, who recently left Triton after two years as the men’s basketball head coach for an assistant’s position at Western Illinois, said, “Alvin was flat-out a great human being.”
Krueger passed away at his Aurora home Tuesday on his 56th birthday. The Downers Grove South graduate was a pitcher for North Central College, a three-time Emmy nominee and a media member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Hall of Fame. Krueger worked numerous IHSA state tournaments and covered the Hersey-Maine South girls supersectional at Fremd with Patricia Babcock McGraw. Mike Clark wrote a nice look at Krueger’s life for the Sun-Times.
Should Have Remembered the Titans Part in MSL’s Start
Glenbrook South did not play varsity football in the Mid-Suburban League’s inaugural year of 1963-64 but did participate in other sports so the league started with six teams with Prospect, Forest View, Maine West, Deerfield and Glenbrook North. Appreciate the heads up and correction from Prospect grad and retired Northern Illinois SID Mike Korcek.
The two Glenbrooks and Deerfield left the league after two years and Niles North also left after only one year in 1964-65. Maine West left after the 1966-67 school year.