2025 Public League football conference alignments revealed
As a Morgan Park grad, Abdullah Asad comes from one of the Public League's tradition-rich football programs.
Now he's helping another return to prominence.
Asad is heading into his fourth year as head coach at King, which will return to the top level of Public League football this fall.
The Jaguars won the White South last season to earn promotion to the 16-team Red. They replace Hyde Park, which drops from the Red to the White South.
"We've been working really hard to get up to the Red," Asad said.
He's a link to King's glory days under city coaching legend Lonnie Williams, who won 238 games in 44 seasons.
"I've known coach Williams most of my life," Asad said, noting that Williams was still active as a substitute teacher when he arrived at King.
The Jaguars also beat Marshall last season in their Class 3A playoff opener for their first IHSA postseason win since 2015, Williams' final year.
Some teams bounce back and forth between Public League divisions as experience and talent levels fluctuate. But Asad expects King to stay in the Red for a while.
Enrollment is rising at the South Side school. Asad said there are around 790 students in the building this school year, with more than 250 in each of the last two incoming freshman classes.
Meanwhile, there won't be much roster turnover. The entire offensive line, which averages 6-5 and 330 pounds, returns with 6-6, 325-pound sophomore Cornelius Moore leading the way.
Freshman running back Jamar Lewis and defensive ends Marques McIntyre and Pharoah McThune are other key veterans.
There is depth as well as talent, a necessity for the Jaguars to compete against bigger schools such as Morgan Park, Young, Lane, Simeon and Taft in the Red.
"When I first got here, we had about 45 kids [in the program]," Asad said. "We're building it out."
Now the Jaguars have 85-90 players on three levels.
Besides building up the roster, Asad has been beefing up the schedule. St. Laurence, which reached the Class 4A title game in 2023, is on the nonconference schedule this fall.
"I don't want them to be shell-shocked when they get to the state playoffs," Asad said of his players.
The holdover members of the Red are: Amundsen, Brooks, Bulls Prep, Clark, Johnson, Kenwood, Lane, Lincoln Park, Morgan Park, Payton, Phillips, Simeon, Taft, Westinghouse and Young.
Like last year, the White has two tiers, with 16 teams in the two top conferences and 24 in the four lower divisions. The remaining 22 Public League teams will be in three Blue divisions.
Other teams moving up for 2025 are Carver, Prosser and South Shore from the White's second tier to top tier, and Muchin, Pritzker, Solorio and Speer from the Blue to the White's second tier.
Moving down are Crane, Hubbard and Vocational from the White's upper tier to the second tier and Catalyst-Maria, Hansberry, Marine and Von Steuben from the White's second tier to the Blue.