By Dominic Scianna

Martin Luther King High School athletic director Abdullah Asad is in his fifth year of running the school’s athletic department.

To say that he was born to work in the Chicago Public League (CPL) and Chicago Public School (CPS) sports administration offices would be an understatement. His King Jaguars sports programs have been on the rise since his tenure began, especially when you look at the progress of the football program at the school.

It’s no conicidence that Asad is also the head football coach and the team is coming off of a CPL White South conference crown in 2024. His team now moves up to the Metro Conference, which is stacked with 16 of the best CPL squads broken up into four mini-divisions. The Jaguars will be slotted this year in a pod of four teams with Westinghouse, Lane Tech, and Payton.

That’s right where Asad thought his team would be in his development plan.

“It’s something I’ve been prepping our kids for since I’ve been at King,” noted Asad, as the 2025 squad is poised this preseason to make a bigger statement. “Our goals have always been to play at the highest level in CPL and at the state level. All the things that we’ve done to get us to this point have put us in a position to compete. I believed at the end of last year we were playing at a level where we could play with any team in the city.”

And that bold statement proved prophetic as King was one of a handful CPL programs that won an Illinois High School Association (IHSA) playoff game and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs.

Morgan Park was Asad’s alma mater in high school as a Chicago native, born and raised, and his experiences there molded his identity and love for football and prowess as a cornerback, earning him a scholarship to play college football at Concordia University-St. Paul in Minnesota. After a brief stint there, Asad migrated back to his hometown to join the CPS sports department, serving as an athletics program administrator (APA) for a couple of years before departing for his current role at King.

Asad learned from his coaches and administrators along the way and, for him, it’s all about preparation and a vision that motivates him every day in his dual role as athletics director and head varsity football coach and mentor.

“It’s difficult but it comes down to time management,” he said. “There are a lot of times I’m waking up super early doing the compliance and things I have to do from an athletic director’s standpoint, and then prepare for practice on the back end of the day and stay up until 10 or 11 pm watching film from our practices. Then I have to do it all over again the next day, but I’m in a rhythm and flow (having been at the same school for five years now), so it becomes a lot easier for me.”

The competition will be stiff in the CPL regular season and Asad likes his chances against the best. His team will have a huge test in the first two games this season, playing non-conference foes St. Laurence High School and Rochelle High School from suburban Rochelle, Illinois, teams that had deep runs in the IHSA playoffs a year ago.

“These are two teams we wouldn’t normally play in the regular season and they have very different styles from our competition in our league,” admitted Asad. “I want my team exposed to different styles so that we’re ready when the time comes again and it won’t be anything we haven’t seen.”

Encouraging news also comes to the King program in the form of the significant number of 85-plus participants trying out for the freshman, junior varsity, and varsity levels of competition. That number allows King to have three levels of football competition offered to their student-athletes for the first time in the program’s history.

Here are some of the key contributors for King that Asad will be counting on this season as the Jaguars ready themselves for the 2025 football campaign.

• Trumaine Ford II – sophomore, QB, 6’4 – “super high football IQ”
• Jermaine Whitfield – junior, QB, WR, DB – “explosive player and was a wide receiver in 2024 with 9 TD’s.”
• Jamar Lewis – 6’1 sophomore. “Super talented running Back who started as freshman with 11 TD’s last year and has had a great summer and a player we will rely on this year.”
• Seth Dukes – “senior receiver who played really well in the state playoffs last year.”
• Kayvon Sullivan – “started to play big as the season progressed and into the state tournament.”
• Emmanuel James and Justin Williams – “junior safeties that are invaluable and have been starting for me since game three of their freshman seasons.”
• Lamar Dean – “cornerback with a 6’5 wing man and a turnover machine for us who also can play safety.”
• Nathaniel Guy – “linebacker, and one of the fastest guys on our team.”

“I’m really happy and super excited with the experience we have on our defense and the explosiveness we have on the offensive side of the ball too,” said Asad confidently. “That’s going to be the strength of the team in 2025, centering around our interior play, size and physicality. Honestly, I believe we could have the biggest line in Illinois this season.”

Below is Coach Asad’s assessment of the 2025 King football roster’s interior lines and key losses.

Offensive Linemen

• Cornelius Moore, junior left tackle, all-city honorable mention, 6’6, 315 lbs.
• Deante McNeail, left guard, 6’2, 390 lbs, senior and four year starter.
• Desmond Spears, junior center, 6’0, 350 lbs.
• Damare Griffin, junior right guard, 6’5, 340 lbs
• Devin Fields, senior right tackle, all-conference player, 6’5, 285 lbs.

Defensive Linemen

• Marques McIntyre, all-city defensive end, 6-1, 230 lbs, all-conference
• Pharoah McThune, all-city defensive end, 6-4, 240 lbs
• Alexander Robinson, defensive line, 6-1, 240 lbs, wrestler and football player

Key Losses This Year

• Jaden Thomas – “senior leader and all-city quarterback last year. He was a risk taker and got better to improve on his accuracy and minimize his turnovers.”

King opens up the 2025 football season on the road at St. Laurence on August 29.

Photos by Ashley Harris/OSA