Story by Kurt Miller
Since the day Dylan Zerki began high school, he had aspirations of playing football, the game he loves, at the college level. But it wasn't until he received a call from Kalamazoo College Head Football Coach Jamie Zorbo that he knew his dreams could become a reality.
"I didn't know what Kalamazoo College was all about until I got a phone call from him," Zerki said. "I started to indulge myself in understanding Kalamazoo at an academic level because that was my main focus. After doing some more research and talking with him, it just sounded so amazing."
As the recruiting process intensified between Zorbo and Zerki, an Orchard Lake St. Mary's standout, Zorbo knew he had the chance to land a special talent. And he wasn't shy about letting Zerki know just how special he could be if he chose Kalamazoo College.
"We talked about in the recruiting process that there's quite a history here of great linebacker play," Zorbo said. "I told him he reminded me of some of those guys."
By the time the spring of Zerki's senior year of high school came around, he committed to play football and attend Kalamazoo College. It didn't take long before he solidified a spot for himself on the football field.
In the first game of the season in 2012, Kalamazoo traveled to Rose-Hulman for a night game and Zerki was second on the depth chart at the middle, or "mike," linebacker position. But circumstances changed quickly forcing Zerki to take over the reins of the defense.
"I remember it vividly," said Zorbo. "It was either the first or second series of that game, our starting mike linebacker at the time broke his hand. Dylan went in and I had total confidence in him. As a mike linebacker, to take the call from the sideline, communicate the call with the defense and make all of the checks you need to make, that's a lot for a freshman to handle in your first game. But it was very easy for Dylan from the start."
Zerki solidified himself as the starting mike linebacker from that game forward, and as they say, the rest is history.
Until Zerki rewrote history, that is.
Having missed just three quarters in his entire career due to injury, Zerki entered the 2015 season with 300 total tackles, just 28 behind Sean Mullendore '93, the all-time leading tackler in Kalamazoo College history.
"Knowing I could be the all-time leading tackler kind of started to become a reality mid-way through my junior year," Zerki said. "I saw the kind of numbers that I started to put up and it was starting to get into the range of some of the greats here.
"It really started to hit me our first game this year, though. It got more real as the countdown kept going down."
Heading into the fourth game of the Hornets' season in 2015, Zerki had 327 total tackles, one shy of tying the record. Despite falling to Benedictine on the road, Zerki ended the game with six tackles and became the all-time leader in Kalamazoo College history.
"Everyone on the team was supportive of the record breaking, which I really appreciated," Zerki said. "I loved that. All of my teammates were definitely supportive throughout the process of it."
With five regular season games still remaining in his career, all of them being conference games, Zerki hopes to make an even bigger impact the rest of the way, but he did note there's one particular area he'll miss most when his career comes to a close.
"The things I'm going to remember most are the players I played with," Zerki said. "Those guys will forever be my best friends—kids that are younger than me now and guys that graduated two or three years ago—they'll forever be my best friends. The way we've connected at a personal level is indescribable to be honest."