DeKALB – Jim Zebrowski never thought he would be a college football coach.
That was about 12 years ago, when he was a high school teacher/coach at Berea High in Berea, Ohio. At that point, the Northern Illinois quarterbacks coach who started about six weeks ago, stopped by a college football practice.
"I went to a college practice, I don't know what it was, Cincinnati or somebody, and I'm like, 'I think I could do that,' " Zebrowski said. "Do I then stay at high school and become a head coach? Or go to college?"
Needing his master's degree to continue teaching where he was anyway, the president of the local teacher's union, a former football coach himself, told Zebrowski to chase his dream, take a two-year leave and not to worry, because he still had his teaching job.
Zebrowski landed at Southern Illinois and started as a 29-year-old graduate assistant, a rarity as GA's usually are about 22-24 years of age.
After making money at a secure job, Zebrowski lived in international off-campus housing.
"I think I was the only American in a small dorm," Zebrowski said.
On top of that, SIU didn't officially have a football graduate assistant program. So Zebrowski had to work in the library for 10 hours a week, going through that department in order to coach.
"I'm stacking books and doing the Dewey Decimal System," Zebrowski said. "But it worked out. The great thing was that it gave me a chance to coach. I thought I knew a lot in high school. I didn't know anything. It helped me in that respect."
And wherever Zebrowksi has gone, offenses have flourished.
As the offensive coordinator at Division III Millikin, the Big Blue averaged 44.6 points a game in 2000. When he moved to Lakeland College, his team never finished lower than second in conference play. And at Wisconsin-Whitewater, Zebrowski was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for a team that averaged 489.6 yards a game this past season.
Now, he feels he is ready to mentor NIU's quarterbacks and work with a coaching staff he has gotten to know well over the past seven years through connections and visiting NIU coach Jerry Kill and his staff once a year to talk football.
"What I've always liked about [Kill] is he's like, 'You're a ball coach. If you're a ball coach, it doesn't matter if you're high school, college, Division I, Division II, Division III, you're a ball coach,' " Zebrowski said. "And he says, 'Jimmy I know you're a ball coach.' "
Zebrowski said he's looking forward to the challenge and doesn't anticipate a major shakeup in terms of coaching style from that of Pat Poore, who now is the wide receivers coach for the Huskies.
"Upbeat, positive, energetic," he said. "I'm not one of those kinds of guys that's hard on the quarterbacks. You make a mistake at quarterback, it shows up pretty big. I'm more of a guy that knows you're going to make mistakes so let's learn from those mistakes and show them the pictures.
"I think if they trust you, and nowadays it's a mutual-respect thing, I don't think you can just go in there and get on the guy. You've got to earn their respect by your work ethic and your passion and stuff like that."
With spring football practice only a little more than three weeks away, and even with two-year starter Chandler Harnish missing spring practices because of a knee injury, Zebrowski said he's anxious to get to work.
"We've got great competition going on and great guys that can play. [DeMarcus] Grady is already showing signs," Zebrowski said. "He's been successful winning-wise in the games he's played. The other guys were young guys ... now they've got a chance to get a spring in them and compete."
