Tom Zbikowski, left, is starting his first season as a high school football coach. File, JOE LEWNARD/jlewnard@dailyherald.com

Tom Zbikowski was known for his speed and elusiveness as a quarterback at Buffalo Grove High School. Since hanging up the cleats, and boxing gloves, he's changed directions a few times in life.

Since high school, he talked about a dream of becoming a Chicago firefighter. He achieved that goal but missed competition. So he got back into coaching football at the college level, first at Western Michigan, then for two years at Brown in the Ivy League.

Now he's back in Chicago and working at the high school level, as head coach at St. Patrick on the Northwest side. The reason for this change was family.

“That first season at Brown was really tough,” Zbikowski said.

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