Eisenhower’s Andre Lovett grew up watching his older cousin, Mar’Keise Irving, become a football star, tracking his path all the way from youth games to Hillcrest to earning college accolades at Minnesota and Oregon and a potential NFL future.
Seeing Irving have that kind of success made Lovett believe it was possible for himself.
“He’s what got me started playing football, for real,” Lovett said of Irving. “Watching him be the guy when he was at Hillcrest and when he was younger, in park district football, I looked up to him.
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“When my time came, I wanted to do that, too.”
Lovett has certainly done it at Eisenhower. Now, he’s set to follow in Irving’s footsteps to major college football. The junior defensive back/receiver committed on March 11 to Illinois.
“It’s very exciting,” Lovett said. “I appreciate the strong love I’ve built with the staff, the love they’ve shown me, and especially the consistency of love and support they’ve given me throughout the whole recruiting process.
“It made it an easy decision to call Illinois home.”
Lovett, rated as a three-star athlete by Rivals.com, is ranked as the No. 13 player in Illinois for the 2025 class. He had offers from 16 Division I schools, including Iowa, Kansas State, Missouri and Tennessee.
The home-state Illini, though, offered everything Lovett wanted.
“I was looking for a place that was going to make me feel like home where I could be comfortable and a place that’s going to get me to the NFL,” he said. “I wanted a place with a good coaching staff that loves their players and a school where I could probably see the field early.
“Illinois gives me all that. It’s amazing. It’s close to home. My family and friends can come watch me play.”
Eisenhower coach Sheamus Murphy said Illinois coach Bret Bielema and his staff — including Thornton graduate Terrance Jamison, the Illini’s co-defensive coordinator — have long been fans of Lovett.
“Coach Jamison was one of the first coaches to come in here and tell me and tell Andre that he was a Division I prospect, so to see that go full circle has been really cool,” Murphy said. “Andre is an elite athlete, a great kid, a great student, and we’re just so excited for him to be heading to Illinois.”
Lovett started playing flag football when he was 4 years old. As he got older, he was continually inspired by Irving.
“Watching him have great seasons at Minnesota and Oregon and just dominating, it motivated me,” Lovett said. “Now he’s going to the draft, and I’m actually going to be at his draft party with him. It’s amazing.”
By the time Lovett was a freshman starting on varsity for Eisenhower, he started to believe he could take the same path as his cousin and play Division I football.
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“I started getting some camp invites and then I started getting offers and going on visits, building connections,” Lovett said. “That’s when I started thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be playing college ball.’”
A three-year recruiting process is now wrapped up, and Lovett can prepare for his senior season with the Cardinals. First, he’s competing this spring with the Cardinals’ track team.
“I think this does take some of the pressure off,” Murphy said. “Now, he can just go out there, have fun this spring with track and enjoy high school football because high school football is so precious.”
Lovett is proud to show football players can go from Eisenhower to the Big Ten.
“It’s going to be amazing just to put on for Eisenhower,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of D-I guys recently before this year and last year and now we’ve got my cousin, Nick Mayfield, going to South Dakota. We’ve got Kwan Johnson going to Eastern Illinois.
“Me going to Illinois and representing Eisenhower, it means a lot.”