Tom Zbikowski Returns to St. Patrick

By John Montgomery

Welcome back. Welcome home.

Zbikowski is BAAAAAAAACK in Chicago at St. Patrick.

Tom Zbikowski is hoping to use his life experiences on and off the field to revitalize the football program at St. Patrick High School in Chicago. He has compiled an impressive resume from his playing days at Buffalo Grove, Notre Dame and the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL. Zbikowski, who grew up wanting to be the next Mike Tyson and was even unbeaten in eight bouts as a professional boxer, also hopes to start a boxing program at St. Patrick after the football season. His next major goal is to fight actor Jake Paul.

For now, his focus is on Shamrock football after spending the last three football seasons as an assistant coach at Western Michigan and Brown.

Nobody has to remind Zbikowski that St. Patrick hasn’t won a conference championship in football since 2002. For whatever reason, the Shamrocks haven’t been able to achieve success on a consistent basis, usually with at least one team standing in the way. In basketball, it was St. Joseph. In football, it was Joliet Catholic, a 15-time state champion.

St. Patrick is best known for its success in basketball with back-to-back 500-game winning coaches Max Kurland and Mike Bailey, who guided the Shamrocks to third place in last year’s Class 3A tournament.

In football, St. Patrick overcame a 5-4 regular season in 2021 to advance to the Class 5A quarterfinals. Previously, they had won only eight games in the last three seasons. The Shamrocks have won 11 conference championships but never have won a state football title or a Prep Bowl.

St. Patrick alumni, students and fans are hoping that Zbikowski can have the same impact that former Gordon and DePaul basketball star Tom Kleinschmidt has had at DePaul Prep, which has won three state championships in a row. And former Northern Illinois University quarterback Jordan Lynch, who has guided his alma mater Mount Carmel to four state championships, including the three in a row.

Zbikowski has an interesting perspective on his first head coaching assignment.

“I didn’t come (to St. Patrick) to win a state championship but that would be nice,” he said following a recent practice session. “I don’t want to go 0-9, either. I want to win and send kids to college. I will measure my success by the number of kids who receive scholarships to play college football. That number is very important to me.”

The Shamrocks open their 2025 regular season on Friday night at Yorkville. They will entertain Elgin Larkin in their home opener at Triton College in Week 2.

Zbikowski’s new boss, St. Patrick president Dan Santucci, a former NFL player, recalls when he and Zbikowski were teammates at Notre Dame. 

“I had the privilege of having Tom has a teammate and there is no one who has played with more passion and intensity than him,” Santucci said.

“Tom’s experience at the highest level of football will be a tremendous asset to St. Patrick,” said St. Patrick athletic director Matt Reardon.

To generate more interest among alumni, St Patrick has plans to play an alumni football game at newly renovated Hanson Stadium on a yearly basis.

Meanwhile, his focus is on the 2025 season. He hired former St. Patrick quarterback Tom Barrett to run the Shamrocks’ offense and former Holy Cross football player Kevin Walz to run the defense with help from former St. Patrick coach Dan Galante, who won 77 games at the Northwest Side school.

Zbikowski said his team will throw the football while running a 4-3 defense.

“Working with Tom has been a great experience,” Barrett said. “Everybody thought we were getting this Buddy Ryan guru but he knows a lot about the game of football. He is more concerned about impacting young men.”

Zbikowski’s life in the NFL wasn't as glamorous as many people might believe with games practices and meetings every week.

“People don’t understand the loneliness of being a professional athlete,” he said. “There isn’t enough money in the world.”

And he recalls his never-to-be-forgotten experiences as a two-time All-America defensive back at Notre Dame in 2005 and 2006.

“It was more impressive that I graduated from Notre Dame,” he admitted. “I wasn’t a good student.”

For the time being, he is more anxious to prove he is a good coach. To build a successful program at St. Patrick, Zbikowski knows he must compete on and off the field against neighborhood rival DePaul Prep, which won the Class 4A football championship last year.

The Shamrocks are in the Purple Division of the newly realigned Chicago Catholic League with DePaul Prep, Benet and St. Viator. They have only four returning starters and a new quarterback in Gavin Gardner.

Competing in the Catholic League allows Zbikowski an opportunity to fulfill another dream—to play in the Prep Bowl against the Chicago Public League champion in a classic city rivalry that dates to 1934. And if he has any influence in the matter, he hopes to see the game moved back to Soldier Field.

"I would love the opportunity for our team to play in that game,"

But first is the matchup Friday night  at Yorkville. Game 1 of his new career with the Shamrocks

“I am excited about Friday night. I know my boys have worked hard,” Zbikowski said after Monday’s practice. He also was inspired by his team’s performance in a scrimmage against Hersey on August 22 that attracted a large crowd in Arlington Heights.

“That scrimmage was the most beneficial thing we have done,” he said. “I have accomplished many things in my life but having the ability to impact a young man’s life is most important.”

The first opportunity is Friday night against Yorkville.      

Photo credit: St. Patrick High School

Kenwood Comes Back to Edge Simeon 58-56

After the DePaul Prep Rams took care of our St. Viator Lions 63-23 in the Antioch (my photos to follow), I jetted down to Hinsdale Central to catch the end of Kenwood v. Simeon.

I got there with about four minutes to go. Simeon lead by a point after having lost a seventeen point lead in the third quarter.

I was there mostly to see what happened rather than actually cover the game. I found a spot on the floor next to Sun-Times photographer Kirsten Stickney. She was working so I took a spot out of her way. She is a master at the reaction shot. I am not good at it despite working on it. I was kind of watching her work so I could learn from her. She never puts the camera down. She is always hunting for a shot. She was only using one camera with a 70-200mm lens.

I managed to get the obvious reaction shot of Kenwood’s Devin Cleveland after he dropped the game winning floater with 37.1 seconds left. Kirsten also got the shot but she also the shot of Devin taking the shot—the shot that is in the paper. The shot I got of that was obscured by a Simeon defender.

As for the game, I guess I just knew Kenwood would win. Jack Gleason said the same thing after the game. Kenwood just always wins close games at the end. Devin Cleveland, Amari Edwards and tj Seals are just money players. They know how to win.

These are shots from the final couple minutes and the overtime.

DePaul Prep and Lane Are Both Regional Champs

[Preview of my Inside—Booster article for this week.]

By Jack Lydon

It was a good night for basketball teams from Addison and Western. The seventh ranked DePaul Prep Rams (28-4) defeated the Carmel Corsairs (12-19) to win their tenth consecutive regional championship. Their immediate neighbor to the north, the Lane Tech Champions (20-11) defeated the New Trier Trevians 67-57 to win Lane’s first ever regional championship in school history.

With the number one seed in the 3A Antioch Sectional, DePaul Prep faced the number nine seed, Carmel Catholic from Mundelein. The Rams controlled the game from the outset. Their patented switching defense stymied Carmel at every turn. The Corsairs struggled to even get shots up. They only scored one point in the second quarter, and that was a free through in the closing seconds of the half.

Rams’s junior guard Rykan Woo, recently selected as second-team All-City by the Sun-Times, had nineteen points included all thirteen of the Rams’ first quarter points. Senior forward and DePaul University commit Jonas Johnson started the game and added eleven points. Point guard and Western Illinois commit Makai Kvamme had ten points.

“It’s great. I certainly don’t take it for granted,” Rams head coach Tom Kleinschmidt said of his teams’ having won ten straight IHSA Regional Championships.

“It the cultivation of a program, the support that we get from the school, the coaches and players that we have had, names that [our current players] may not know or may have only heard of that really build the program, guys like Chris Herrell and Raequan [Williams], David Holiday, Scotty Calderon, [Dan Lydon], all those guys that build the program,” Kleinschmidt added.

“[Those guys] took the program and gave it to Perry [Cowen], Perry gave it to these guys. It’s been awesome. I don’t take it for granted. Ten straight regionals. I remember the first three that we played in we didn’t win one. I was hoping to win one or two regionals.”

DePaul Prep senior Makai Kvamme, widely regarding as a top point guard in the area, reflected on his last home game in DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym. “I have played here for so long, developed such a great relationship with my teammates. It means the world to me being here with my teammates and coaches.”

As good of a night as it was for the Rams, it was that and more for the Lane Tech Champions. The number four seed Champions defeated the previously ranked and five seed New Trier Trevians in the Maine South regional final 67-57. This was Lane’s first regional championship in school history. The Champions join the ranks of venerable southside 2025 CPS regional champions such as Kenwood, Simeon, Whitney Young and Curie.

The Champions reprised their January 18th 60-47 victory over New Trier but it wasn’t without having to deal with adjustments by the Trevians.

“They really tried to negate [first team All-City senior center] Dalton [Scantlebury],” said Lane Tech head coach Nick LoGalbo.

“They were in a box and one [defense] the entire game. We did a good job in setting our other guys up, using Dalton’s strengths in other ways. Guys stepped up.”

New Trier junior forward Christopher Kirkpatrick led the Trevians attack with his deadly long range jumpers. Kirkpatrick managed 29 points but it would not be enough to overcome a 17-4 first quarter deficit.

“We got hot from three early. We made some big ones late. We got to a point where they were just daring us to shoot it. Drew Barolai hit a big one from the corner. That kind of broke the game open in the third quarter. We took a pretty good lead. We maintained that through the fourth. And that was it,” LoGablo said.

“I am super proud of our guys. We have been talking about trying to do this for a long time. I thought we had the team to do it. We set the schedule at the beginning of the year. We decided that we are going to go play everbody. We found a way to get ourselves here. Our guys were ready for the moment.”

DePaul Prep advances to face a somewhat overlooked St. Viator Lions team in the 3A Antioch Sectional semi-final on Tuesday. The Lions have put together an impressive 23-9 record year.

The Lane Tech Champions will face #12 Evanston (26-5)  in the 4A New Trier Sectional semi on Tuesday.

Other area teams also played in the regional championships. In 4A, #20 Whitney Young knocked off the other ranked area team #13 Lincoln Park 50-47.

DePaul Prep Handles St. Patrick 41-0

[Preview of this week’s Inside Booster article]

By Jack Lydon

The DePaul Prep Rams took apart the St. Patrick Shamrocks 41-0 at DePaul Prep on Friday evening. The Rams improved their 4-0, 2-0 in the CCL/ESCC Purple division. This game against the Shamrocks, 2-2, 1-1, also in the Purple, took on the added significance because it was a division game.

It was a busy evening on the west end of Roscoe Village. DePaul Prep hosted St. Patrick, the only other Catholic high school on the Northside. Lane hosted Whitney Young at Lane Stadium at the same time just a few hundred yards north of DePaul’s field. Parking was difficult to come by.

Before the game, the DePaul Prep fans, coaches and staff I talked to were tightlipped about what to expect.

“They’re good. And big,” a couple people told me.

Another observer told me, “DePaul 20-13.”

“They can run the football, but they haven’t played anyone that can pass the ball like we can,” one coach told me.

It didn’t take long for the Rams show exactly how well they can pass the ball. And score. Less than two minutes into the game, Rams senior quarterback Juju Rodriguez hit senior wideout Justin Sterner on a twenty-five-yard touchdown.

Not long thereafter, Rams’ senior running back Nick Martinez added another touchdown with a 37-yard for a touchdown. 14-0.

Rams’ senior wide receiver Braden Peevy scored a four-yard touchdown with 6:55 left in the second quarter to make the score 21-0. The Rams were rolling.

Then with nine seconds left in the half, Rodriguez connected with junior wide receiver Matthew Osterman on a 23-yard post route at the back of the north endzone for a fourth touchdown and a 27-0 half time lead.

To some extent, that was expected. The Rams and Juju, a three-year starter, can pass the ball and score. What was not expected was the way the Rams defense controlled the Shamrocks. St. Patrick’s strung together a couple first downs in the first quarter but never threated to score in the first half. The Rams defense held on every possession and forced punts. The Shamrocks offensive line is huge. The Rams defensive line stopped the run. The closest the Shamrocks go to scoring as a 52-yard field goal attempt late in the game that was on target but a came up few yards short.

It felt like the Rams were just taking-care-of-business. St. Patrick had a winning record. They are big and skilled. Yet the Rams handled them on offense and defense.

I remember interviewing Rams head coach Mike Passarella several years ago. He said something to me after a tough loss that stuck with me. “We haven’t learned how to win yet.”

The Rams have learned how to win.

“I think it started last year. It started with us losing a game against Providence [Catholic in New Lenox] by a couple points. Then we beat Fenwick in double overtime. We learned how to compete, how to stay in games and how to finish games. When I started here, it was a rough go in the beginning. Then every year it was a steady climb. We grew up last year,” Passarella said.

When one learn how to win, I guess it just feels like taking care-of-business. Check off another game on the schedule.

But the goal of the season is to get into to the playoffs. The Catholic school super football conference, a combination of the Chicago Catholic League and the East Suburban Catholic League, doesn’t make it easy to get to the playoffs. To be assured a playoff spot, the IHSA requires a 6-3 record. Getting six wins in the CCL/ESCC is tough for every team. You just don’t play teams at your level. You play teams from the higher divisions of the conference.

The Rams face Loyola next week from the Blue Division. Loyola has lost one game in the last three seasons. The Rams will play St. Francis (Wheaton) from the Green Division. The Rams will play Carmel Catholic from the White Division. Very good teams with winning programs. And then there are St. Viator and Benet Academy, historically successful programs and new rivals in the Purple Division. To make the playoffs, the Rams have to find two wins in those five games against teams from the upper levels of the Catholic League.

Asked what he is going to change to get ready for Loyola, Passarla said, “Honestly, nothing. Our practice is going to be the same during the week. The kids know that when we are on the road, it’s a business trip. This is the first group that has the ability to flip the switch and be engaged. They want it.”

They turned a corner. They learned how to win.

“Yup, this group is hungry. This senior class wants to be the first class to bring us back to the playoffs for the first time in a decade,” Passarella concluded.

DePaul Prep Throttles Marian Catholic 20-7; Improves to 3-0

Preview of this week’s article in the Booster.

DePaul Prep defeated Marian Catholic 20-7 Friday in Chicago Heights. The Rams improved to 3-0 for the first time in the DePaul Prep era.

DePaul Prep had Marian playing their game. The Rams knew Marian Catholic could run the football. Spartan six foot, 173 lbs, junior tailback Kyle Scott was a load, and fast. Early in the game, the Spartans strung together a couple first downs in each of their first quarter possessions. The Rams stiffened, forcing the Spartans to throw the ball.

An ebullient head coach Mike Passarella gushed about his squad. “Stop the run. That was the game plan,” Passarella said. “They moved the ball on us. I said, ‘let’s just play base football . . . Let’s get after them.’ We are confident in what our guys can do. They know their business,” Passarella said after the game.

“We wanted to force them to throw.”

And they did. Except the Spartans throw the ball to the Rams. Two early interceptions thrown by Marian quarterback senior Joey Baranski killed the Spartans drives without ever moving deep into DePaul Prep territory. Multiple illegal formation penalties contributed to the Spartans troubles. The Rams committed penalties of their own contributing a slow, mistake plagued half for both teams.

It wasn’t until the end of the first half before either team put together a scoring drive. With 3:27 left in the half, having moved the ball down to the Marian Catholic eleven-yard line, Rams’ senior quarterback Fernando “Juju” Rodriguez, a three-year starter, rifled a pass to junior wideout Matthew Osterman at the goal line in the middle of the field. Osterman caught the pass in a crowd for the first score of the game. The PAT gave the Rams a seven- point lead.   

 The Spartans took the subsequent kick but again throw an interception. The Spartans through a total of four interceptions in the game. The Rams took their 7-0 lead into the half.

 The second half was a different story. The Rams took the kickoff and moved right down the field. Halftime adjustments on the offensive line led to Rodriguez being able to connect with Osterman and Rams’ senior running back Nick Martinez for big gains. The drive culminated with a 25-yard strike to senior wide receiver Justin Sterner early in the third quarter.

Rodriguez added a touchdown late in the third quarter on a two-yard quarterback sneak up the middle. Marian blocked the extra point attempt making the score 20-0 at the end of the third.

The Spartans scored on a 73-yard pass reception touchdown that was mostly run-after-the-catch with 1:18 left in the game against the Rams’ second team defense but the game was decided at that point.

This was a huge game for the Rams. They haven’t started a season with three wins since the Gordon Tech days. The Rams move closer to making the IHSA playoffs which takes six wins to be assured a playoff berth. The Rams finished last year’s the regular season 4-5 and missed the playoffs

DePaul Prep started this season with two convincing wins over Deerfield and Marian Central Catholic, 35-28 and 35-7 respectively. The Rams moved up a division in the combined Chicago Catholic League and East Suburban Catholic League. Moving from the lowest “Red” division into the Purple. The CCL/ESCC Purple includes Benet Academy, St. Viator and Northside rival St. Patrick.

The Rams will face St. Patrick next Friday at home. After that will be Loyola at home. The Ramblers lost a shocker at St. Francis 35-21 on Friday. A playoff berth is by no means assured for the Rams. Only tough games remain on the schedule. After Loyola is St. Viator, Carmel, St. Francis and Benet.

Sparked by last year’s huge upset win over Fenwick at home and squad loaded with experience and talented seniors, including expected Division One talent of senior wide receiver Braden Peevy and sophomore offensive tackle Carlos Rios, the Rams football program is on the rise.

“I am excited for [the rest of reason]. This is kind of what we wanted. The goal is to continue to build up the program. We talked about it a few years ago. Where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We never wanted to stay down in the Red. We wanted to move up. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. I am excited for it. This is what it is all about,” Passarella said.