2025 Roosevelt Football Season Preview
After a year of firsts for the Roosevelt Lakers last season, the 2025 campaign brings about a different type of new. For the first time in program history, Roosevelt has a new man leading the charge with former defensive coordinator Billy McKeon taking over as the head coach. The Lakers will also be breaking in a new quarterback and expecting a lot out of the dozens of new faces who arrived ready to attack a second season in the GLIAC.
There are a wide variety of options in the quarterback room for Lakers offensive coordinator Kaleb Borghardt to utilize this year. There’s an Ivy League graduate in Conor Easthope, a Chicago native who spent last season in the SEC (Justin Kowalak), plus returner Zach Zella and talented freshman Tony Chahino who led Illinois in touchdown passes last year. Whoever ends up on the field to start the season, they’ll have the comfort of returning targets like seniors Norbert Espadron, Norion Espadron and Jack Young Jr.
Roosevelt will also be relatively experienced along the offensive line with the return of several linemen who saw playing time last season, led by left tackle Micah Walters. They’ll be not only charged with protecting the quarterback, but continue to open up holes for a rushing attack led by RJ Smith, who is back for his second year in the offense. The Lakers also have experience back on the defensive line with many key reserves returning from last season to fight for larger roles on the field this season.
However, no position group is more experienced than the defensive backs with the Lakers returning most of their key performers in the defensive backfield over the past three seasons. Carlos Conley missed the 2023 season with an injury and didn’t return until the middle of last year, but still intercepted three passes and made 25 tackles. After missing the 2024 season, Stacey Terry is back and looking to return to his 2023 form when he intercepted four passes as a ball-hawking safety. Roosevelt also welcomes back Colin Day and Jarin Edwards, both of whom have been two-year starters for the Lakers.
The Lakers get a later start to the season than most of their conference colleagues with the opener coming Sept. 6 at home against Quincy at Morris Field. Roosevelt hosts Southwest Baptist the following week before traveling to Wisconsin Oshkosh on the 20th. The GLIAC schedule then heats up for the Lakers with defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Ferris State making its first trip to Arlington Heights on Oct. 4.