Roustio keeps Granite City football together as search for new coach continues

As Granite City High School football returns to the Southwestern Conference next season, it hopes to also usher in an era of stability with a new head coach.

“There is no better timing than the present,” said Steve Roustio, a veteran couch and educator who is stepping down. “The administration’s decision to open the position is absolutely, without question, what is best for kids.”

Roustio, a metro-east coach with a long tenure at Granite and other high schools, took over the program when its coach resigned with two games left in the 2023 season. The following year, Granite hired a new coach, but withdrew its offer before the season started.

Roustio has coached the team ever since.

Both Roustio and Athletic Director John Moad said they agreed Roustio role would be temporary until the district could find a more permanent coach.

One way to achieve this is by tying the coaching position to a teaching job. Now that the district has multiple teaching openings, the department is moving ahead with its plan.

“Coach Roustio did a good job of keeping our numbers up and treating our players well,” Moad said in a statement. “The Granite City School District thanks him for his time and dedication to our student athletes, school and the community.”

Roustio also serves as the head coach of boys basketball at Notre Dame de La Salette Academy in Georgetown, which is about three hours from Granite City. The dual coaching responsibilities also played a role in Granite City seeking a new football coach, Roustio said.

“Any way you cut it, that is simply unfair to kids needing your undivided attention,” said Roustio, who coached basketball at Granite City from 2008 to 2016. “Being an assistant in one and head coach in the other, maybe, (but) being head coach of each? (There’s) no way possible to do them due diligence.”

Even though Granite City hopes Roustio’s recent stint as head football coach will be shorter than the next coach’s tenure, Roustio said he and Moad made significant changes to the team’s culture.

Roustio said he came in with two main rules for his athletes: strengthen commitment at practices and take academics more seriously.

Roustio said the first rule included tougher in-season practices and off-season workouts, and the team met those demands. Players also learned that if they let their grades slip and became ineligible, they would be letting down teammates who rely on them, Roustio said.

In the spring of 2024, Roustio said he and Moad reworked the team’s schedule for the next few years. They added teams Roustio said were in situations similar to Granite City — programs trying to build and that “weren’t consistently playoff programs.”

The impact has not been immediate — the Warriors have gone winless the past two seasons — but Roustio said a new foundation gives the team a chance to be more competitive.

“The 2026 schedule has nine opponents with a combined 2025 record of 31-53 or a .369 winning percentage,” Roustio said of next season’s schedule, which has yet to be released. “That, coupled with a plethora of returning starters, (means) the Warriors are in a decent place to further compete on Friday nights.”

He has other suggestions to further boost future success as well. Encouraging students to play multiple sports, as the Illinois High School Association does, can help Granite City’s entire athletic program, Roustio said. The key, he said, is for all coaches to work together.

In that same vein, program continuity needs to start early, Roustio said.

“Since arriving in Granite City 17 years ago, I would say that a few of the issues which have been prevalent in causing most of the programs to struggle... has to do with the absence of a strong fifth- and sixth-grade intramural program (and) a huge disconnect between the high school and junior high school programs in terms of philosophy and cohesiveness,” he said.

As for Roustio’s next steps, he will continue coaching boys basketball at Notre Dame de La Salette Academy.

“I still have a lot to give to the game of basketball, so I’m going to keep coaching as long as I can,” Roustio said.