GRANITE CITY – The football team at Granite City High School had a tough time in the 2023 season going 0-9. Now, there is optimism abounding in the Warriors’ camp as preseason practice began Aug. 12.
New head coach Steve Roustio, who coached the final two games of the previous season, saw many kids come out to the summer workouts during the team’s contact days, and there is a renewed sense of optimism going through the team as the 2024 season approaches, a season that starts at Memorial Stadium/Kevin Greene Field Aug. 30 against Triad.
“Well, coming out of a pretty good summer,” Roustio said in an interview during practice on the second day, Aug. 13. “We had 25 contact dates this summer, and we took advantage of all the opportunities to practice. We practiced from 5 to 8 at night, and we were able to sign up somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 to 68 players, right through there. And on the average, we probably had about 45 kids at practice consistently, some days, a little bit more. But most days, we were over 40.
“Which for the summer is pretty good, because the workouts in the summer are highly recommended, but they cannot be made mandatory. So, when families go on vacation, and kids have jobs and what not, to get 45 kids in practice on a consistent basis in the summer proves a couple of things. That these kids are excited about putting last year behind them, and they’re excited about having a new coaching staff The guys who were on the coaching staff last year are in new positions this year, and then, we have, I would say, four new staff members. There are some new faces on the staff.”
The coaching staff consists of a veteran in longtime Granite City coach Nick Petrillo as offensive coordinator, along with recent newbie Kyle Thompson as defensive coordinator. Other coaches include varsity offensive line coach Sam Fowler, varsity defensive line coach Jackson Darr, freshman-sophomore offensive coordinator Ian Devaney, and freshman-sophomore defensive coordinator Brad Hull, The entire coaching staff has been charged with helping to turn around the culture of Warrior football, which has enjoyed some success in the past, with the team’s most recent playoff berths coning in 2007, 2008, and 2018.
“Changing the Granite City football culture pretty much comes down to demanding three consistent requirements,” Roustio said. “Being on time and accountable, listening and being a student of the game by first being a solid academic student, and play hard in practice so to be prepared for Friday Night Lights. And being net play mentality football players Get ready for the next play.”
The roster has been boosted with a pair of transfers joining the team this season, along with players who are older and stronger, thanks to the winter weightlifting program initiated by the team last winter. It adds up to a new atmosphere in the camp.
“The kids are pretty excited about turning the page and starting over,” Roustio, a longtime coach in both football and basketball, said.
It was, indeed, a terrible season in 2023 for Granite, and the players are anxious to turn things around and prove last season was a fluke.
“Yeah, and the other thing with these kids is that they’re so impressionable,” Roustio said. “If the coaching staff can just remain positive and have an attitude that we’re not going to change, no matter what. We’re going to try to create change, but we’re not going to change, based on what’s happening on the field. If we score first, we’re going to keep grinding, and if we’re down a couple of touchdowns early in the game, we’re going to keep on grinding. We’re not going to get down on ourselves, and mentally put ourselves in a hole, and try to have to battle that hole, bouncing back emotionally and mentally.
“We made a big, huge deal in stressing, just to be a next play, next down mentality football player,” Roustio continued. “So, if a good play that resulted in moving the chains, or maybe we get a linebacker through a gap, we get a sack early on, and create a second or third-and-long, we’re not going to get too high or too low, based on the previous play, but we’re just going to focus on the next play. And I don’t think we have really done a good job doing that in the past. I can only speak to last year, because I wasn’t on the staff the year before that, or in previous years; i was only on the staff last year. But I just noticed that last year, we easily got down on ourselves, and kind of got down on one another. We’ve really, really corrected that this summer, in just our mental approach. So, I’m pretty happy with the guys, in terms of just trying to change their attitudes about how we’re going to approach the game.”
That change was very evident in that day’s practice. Players were encouraging each other throughout the workout, helping each other along through end-of-practice sprints, even carrying along teammates to finish the sprints.
Roustio in feeling very confident about good things happening to the Warriors this season, and it started becoming evident in seven-on-seven passing drills during the summer.
“”You know, I am,” a very confident Roustio said with a hint of a smile. “We were able to do a little modified seven-on seven play with a couple of local teams, and I thought our defense really did a pretty good job, in just knocking down passes, and making some plays in the secondary. And also, stopping the run. There were a couple of different possessions. Just in the lineman challenge drill we did with another team, we were able to kind of hold our own. That’s been a little bit of a problem in the past, being able to kind of battle in the trenches, so to speak.
“But I think our line’s doing a little bit better than they’ve done in the past. And we’ve got a nice set of running backs and receivers, and at the quarterback position, we’ve got three guys that can play. So, I think you’ll see different guys back there quarterbacking, week in and week out. You might not see the same quarterback, so, we’ve got three guys that can actually hold down that position.”
Overall, Roustio is very excited to have the chance to turn things around for the Warrior football program, and help establish it as a local area power who can consistently win games.
“I’m just excited to be involved in a program that’s just trying to change the culture,” Roustio said. “And what I mean by culture is just how we carry ourselves, not just on the football field, but off the football field, too. How we carry ourselves in the classroom, how we pick each other up in practice when we see a teammate who needs some encouragement, either verbally or some physical encouragement, I’ve seen a couple of times this summer, I was pretty proud of our guys when they saw somebody struggling in a workout, and they immediately got on a dead sprint, and went right up to him, and started to encourage him to finish the conditioning, for example. And I didn’t see a lot of that last year. So, that’s exciting to see that guys are looking to build each other up, and not tear each other down, especially when things aren’t going well.”
