GRANITE CITY - Longtime coach Steve Roustio is the new head football coach at Granite City High School, and is looking to revive the Warriors after the team suffered through a nightmare 0-9 season. Roustio coached the final two games of the season after the head coach left the squad.
Roustio was a former head coach for the boys' basketball team, and has a wealth of experience in head coaching in both football and basketball, and is looking ahead to turning the Warriors' fortunes around in football. They're a team that's lost 26 of 27 games after the abbreviated spring 2021 COVID-19 season, and have only made the IHSA playoffs three times in the 21st Century, the last time in 2018.
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"You know, it feels good just to be in a position where you can kind of lead," Roustio said in a recent interview. "Of course, in football, I was always an assistant. I was assistant under three different coaches at Collinsville, Bob Hollingshead back in the 80s, and then John Jackson, when he took over the program in the mid-90s. Of course, I was on Tim Kane's staff before I moved from Collinsville and went on to Highland. The three years I was basketball coach at Highland, I wasn't on the football staff there, but when I went to Petersburg Porta, the two years I was basketball coach there, coaching Petersburg, I was on Rich McMahan' staff. And Rich is now an assistant at Rochester under Derek Leonard. So, I've been around some good football people, in terms of learning the game of football and being tutored by them. That's been a good thing.
"I think in talking with coach (Tim) McChristian," Roustio continued, "and of course, I coached with our building principal at Granite City High School at Collinsville. he knew that if ever the opportunity presented itself, that I wanted to at least be on the staff. But with what happened last year, and the opening, of course, they went and hired a new guy, and at the last minute, he kind of decided not to take the job, and I don't know the details behind it. When I got back from a basketball job I have south of Danville, La Sagrada Academy, coach McChristian reached out to me and asked if I wanted to interview for the job. I told him that I did, and I think this just presents an opportunity.
"Coach Petrillo was a varsity head coach here," Roustio also said, "and, of course, he's our offensive coordinator, and he's doing an outstanding job. And then, having an opportunity to work with Kyle Thompson, who's our defensive coordinator and a very good football coach, works well with the kids and does an outstanding job calling our defense, I just feel like I'm in a good position, where I can just take on the head coaching responsibility, coach the special teams. I have a lot of trust in my staff, everybody on the staff is a hard worker, who really wants kids to do well, they work extremely well with kids. I'm just excited about the opportunity to just lead. Lead the Granite City football program, and put it in a position to be competitive on Friday nights."
Roustio is the son of longtime Edwardsville and Jacksonville basketball coach Mel Roustio, and he's learned a few things along the way from his dad, as well.
"Well, you know, that's kind of priceless," Roustio said. "When you're a young kid, growing up in a coach's home, there's so many things you're learning, subliminally, you're not really paying attention as a kid, but you're really not, but you're seeing it on a daily basis. And really where it helps the most is not just the x's and o's of the game, whether it be football or basketball, but just how to run a program. How to take care of the administrative stuff, how to build a great, positive rapport with parents, and to let parents know it's OK to question what we're doing, in terms of is this something that's going to be good for their kid, is this decision we're making as football coaches is something that's going that's going to help their young man become the best version of themselves.
"Having an open door policy for the parents, and the parents being comfortable enough to come with their son to talk to us and myself and our staff about what we can do to make their son a better football player, but not just a better football player, but help them make better decisions as a young high school student-athlete. So, those kind of things, I think, are priceless, in terms of being a coach's son, growing up in that environment.
"Even though my dad played a little bit of football back at East St. Louis High School, at junior high, at Lansdowne Junior High," Roustio continued. "He didn't play in high school. He did play basketball and baseball for Pick Dehner (the longtime basketball coach at East Side for many years) at East St. Louis. But he knows enough about coaching and enough about all sports, that I've even tapped into his knowledge a little bit, just recently about how to do certain things beyond the x's and o's with this particular football program, and the state it finds itself in."
The new coach said the condition of the Granite City football program, and how to make this a program of attraction, make this a program where kids want to be involved, and want to become better players and better kids.
"We want them to just be better people in general, with how they talk to their classmates, how they talk to one another, and that sort of thing. So, I welcome the parents to help us the best that they can, in terms of what we need to do to make their son the best football player we can make them. But then, also help them holding their son accountable with their grades, being on time and doing those sort of things. We want them to play hard all the time. I think those are things that just come naturally, because I saw them at a very young age.
"Coaching basketball at Collinsville did a world of good for me, too," Roustio also said, "because that's an unbelievable winning tradition over there, a very successful program. There are things that you learn there that you can carry on, and I'm carrying on here as a football coach, but I'm carrying on to Notre Dame La Salette (In Georgetown, Ill.,), that I coach near Danville. So, being a Hall of Fame basketball coach's son has surely helped me, there's no doubt about that."
Helping the Warrior football program return to prominence won't be an overnight thing, indeed, but Roustio's is in for the long run.
"Here's the thing; we have pretty good football players," the coach concluded. "It's a matter of putting it all together. We do have a couple of nice transfers, and we have some kids, like I said earlier, we have some kids that have done the right thing in terms of going out for track, making themselves a better athlete, getting into the weight room, making themselves stronger, changing their attitude about how they're going to try to just keep working hard, and maybe find themselves in a position where some college coaches are looking at them. Maybe can go on and play some football in college. Even if it's just Juco, Division-III, what difference does it make? Just go play, and be a football player in college, and be a student in college. So, if we can help some of these kids get to that level, then by all means, we're going to do that."
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