Badger Deer Camp - Badger Sportsman Magazine

Frank Zombo grew up a suburban kid, just outside
Detroit, and never had hunted until his senior year
of college.
One of his teammates, on Central Michigan’s football
team, took him deer hunting early that fall and his first
time out he killed a nine-point buck.
“I was pretty much hooked,” Zombo said. “After that I
was trying to hunt whenever I had a chance.”
Incredibly, that was only two years ago. Much has
happened to Zombo since: a 12-2 season and top-25
ranking for little Central Michigan in that senior year of
college; making the Green Bay Packers’ roster as undrafted
rookie last year; and getting a sack in the Packers’ Super
Bowl win over Pittsburgh last February.
PACKIN’ IT IN
Frank Zombo
Age: 24
Ht, Wt: 6-3, 254
Position: Outside linebacker
Number: 58
During that time, he’s also become an ardent hunter,
and in that way landing with the Packers has been perfect.
He describes Green Bay as a bigger version of his college
town of Mount Pleasant, MI, (population 26,733) – a
city surrounded by great hunting land.
With his love of the outdoors life, Zombo has been
right at home since making the Packers’ roster last year
and usually spends at least part of his days-off, during
the football season, deer or duck hunting. The Packers’
players generally are off Monday in the late afternoons
plus their mandatory day-off Tuesday, though even then
they come in for at least a few hours to begin studying the
next opponent.
Either way, Zombo usually squeezes in an hour or two,
in the early evening, sitting in a deer stand. It’s usually in
Little Suamico, where he hunts the land of a neighbor
family, the Sefciks, that’s befriended him.
Zombo sometimes takes a small laptop computer to
one of the blinds, where he alternates watching game
video and surveying the landscape. The last time he
went out, he was going to show one of the Sefcik’s sons,
Connor, who plays on a local high school freshman team,
how NFL players watch videotape. But Connor couldn’t
Zombo in his college days at Central Michigan in 2009.
make it that evening because he had late practice.
“Had my computer up, had my feet up, just watching
game film,” Zombo said, “and then every once in a while
I’ll look out. I saw three deer (that) night, two bucks and
one doe. The doe came out when it was light outside, I
could have shot (but didn’t). The bucks didn’t come out
until it was dark, I could barely see. I could see antlers but
couldn’t count points, and I wouldn’t have been able to
get a good shot as it was after hunting hours.”
When he isn’t in the Sefcik’s corn fields, Zombo might
take an afternoon drive up to Lena or over to Kewaunee
for duck hunting with Paul Sefcik, Conner’s uncle.
“It’s peaceful, it’s relaxing to me, just sitting out there
and seeing different animals,” Zombo said. “Every once
in a while a squirrel or raccoon pops out, or a coyote runs
through. It’s not just the killing part, it’s being outside.
I’d much rather sit out in a field and watch ducks fly over
than sit and watch TV and kill time that way. It’s just
“
I’d much rather sit out in a field and watch ducks fly over
than sit and watch TV and kill time that way.
”
NOVEMBER 2011 ❘ Badger Sportsman ❘ badgersportsman.com ❘ 17