Bishop Noll senior Zeb Zukley takes his family ties to heart.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound multisport athlete is the youngest of four brothers who have excelled for the Warriors.
“It’s been 10 years of Zukleys, and being the last one, everyone knows me,” he said. “I don’t know people, but they knew me. They’re like, ‘Oh, another one,’ and they roll their eyes. But it’s been really fun. It’s a relatively small school, so when I say everyone knows you, everyone knows you. All the staff know me.
“It’s been a fun time. I’m not going to look at it like, ‘Thank God, I’m finally out of here.’ It’s been a quick four years. Everyone says it, and I’m hitting myself saying it too. But it’s just a lot. It’s just like, ‘Wow, how am I going into my senior year?’ Everyone knows me, and that comes with high expectations, and I’m not trying to tarnish the name after 10 years or be the bad apple at the end.”
Zack Zukley, who played volleyball, was at the beginning. He graduated in 2020.
Then came Xavier Zukley, a 2023 graduate — and “a monster,” according to Zeb — who was an all-conference soccer player, played basketball, competed in track and field, and parlayed his lone volleyball season as a senior into an opportunity at Aurora University.
Next up was Zekiel Zukley, a 2025 grad — and “another monster,” according to Zeb — who was an all-conference soccer goalkeeper, played football, competed in track and field, and played volleyball. He’s on the football team at DePauw as a freshman.
Zeb Zukley made his football debut last season. He had 42 tackles and a team-high 4.5 sacks as a defensive end and backed up Zekiel as the Warriors’ punter and kicker. Zeb Zukley also played soccer in each of his first three years but decided to focus on football this season. He was a thrower in track in his first two years.
Zeb Zukley’s primary sport is volleyball, which he has played throughout his Bishop Noll career and at the club level. He believes football has helped him pursue his goal of playing volleyball in college — he’s eying an in-state school, particularly Ball State — and studying either business or engineering.
“It’s the mentality of just sticking with it and just getting that personal grit in your head to just go get it no matter how hard it is,” Zeb Zukley said of football. “A lot of people could use that.”
It hasn’t taken long for Zeb Zukley to make an impression on first-year coach Rick Good, who took over the Warriors after four years at Calumet, where he won the program’s only sectional title in 2020, and three years at Lake Central.
“This is like his new thing, and he’s taken to it like a duck to water,” Good said of Zeb Zukley. “He’s been a guy out front for us the whole time. He’s a good athlete across the board.
“This is only his second year playing football. They were never really allowed to play football as kids. When they got here, they begged and begged and begged and begged, and they’ve made the most of it.”
Zeb Zukley hopes to maximize his move to linebacker from the defensive line.
“I’m going to be doing basically the same thing,” he said. “I’ll just be in coverage sometimes. I’d like to catch a couple of interceptions and maybe return one to the house. That would be really fun.
“The coaches have made it very simple to understand, to learn the assignments, and I just want to attack the assignments. When the other team puts up any offense, I want to be able to read it and communicate it to my team. It’s just the go-get-it mentality I’ve been using. If I don’t understand something, just come back and ask questions. I don’t want to be the one on the field scared about what the offense sets up against me. I want to be 100% sure about what I want to do, and once I know what to do, I can communicate to my teammates what they have to do.”
Zeb Zukley has been effective at that, according to Bishop Noll junior wide receiver/defensive back Samuel Rosas.
“He’s the most talkative guy,” Rosas said. “He’s a leader. He’s an athlete. There’s nothing about him that’s not skilled. He’s smart. He’s physical. He has all the attributes.”
Zeb Zukley’s mother, Tina, who is Bishop Noll’s school nurse, also is an accomplished soccer and softball player. He recalled playing with her in “an intense” coed indoor league on Sundays when he was a freshman.
“It was a crazy league, and she was holding her own,” Zeb Zukley said. “She wasn’t a detriment to the team — actually, she was good.”
Tina Zukley also sings the national anthem at Bishop Noll basketball games and volleyball matches.
“Tina’s involved all over the place,” Good said. “They’re an awesome family. It’s really a family affair for the Zukleys.”
Zeb Zukley’s father, Mark, who died in January 2024, also influenced him. The 6-9 Mark Zukley shined in basketball and golf at T.F. South in Illinois, had a standout basketball career at Parkside and played professionally in Germany.
“He was a strong athlete, a very smart mind,” Zeb Zukley said. “He was a very good athlete. I wish I got more of his height.
“He was a smart brain. He was a handyman. He did everything — everything. People would call him, and he would fix water heaters, ACs. He could fix all of that stuff.”
Zeb Zukley suffered a broken foot in a mishap with Zekiel on his grandparents’ farm during the summer before his sophomore year. That injury caused him to miss virtually the entire soccer season and thwarted his initial attempt to play football.
“Man, I was saving some games for him,” Zeb Zukley said of his father. “He didn’t see me play a good football game at my best. I wish he could see me in person.
“I wish I could hear him talk about fundamentals of games he never played before. He would always do that. I was like, ‘You never played that sport. You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re just saying it to say it.’ I wish I could hear him say it one more time.”
Zeb Zukley carries those memories as his time at Bishop Noll winds down and he prepares for a promising future.
“I respect and think so fondly of my brothers because they set up everything on how to do it,” he said. “I won’t go into college thinking this is too hard. I have examples of how to do it and how not to do it.
“I respect them for the people they are and what they’ve done, not just academics-wise or athletics-wise, but just personally. When people ask me about them, I will never be like, ‘Oh, he’s a jackass.’ I’ll always praise them because they deserve it.”
So, too, does Zeb Zukley.
“He’s a great kid, just really, really nice,” Good said. “He can be quiet. But he’s everything you would want out of a kid.”