Raffi Karibian returns home to Granite City as Warriors head boys basketball coach

GRANITE CITY – When Raffi Karibian was a student at Granite City High School, he played on the tennis and basketball teams prior to his graduation in 1991.

Karibian has been the boys tennis coach for the Warriors since 2006 and took on the responsibilities of the boys basketball coach beginning this season following the departure of previous coach Steve Roustio.

It's an opportunity and a challenge that Karibian has welcomed.

“I'm really excited to be able to coach the basketball team,” Karibian said. “It's a great opportunity to work at the school I graduated from.”

Karibian began coaching at GCHS following his graduation from Missouri-St. Louis; he was an assistant coach for one-time boys basketball coach Carl Luehmann (currently the head football coach for the Warriors) as well as John Van Buskirk when he started coaching and later served as GCHS' head girls basketball coach; he also has a stint coaching at UMSL before coming back to Granite City and also coached at Grigsby Junior High (now Grigsby Intermediate School) in Granite City before being named boys head coach following Roustio's departure.

This year's edition of the Warriors entered the season with very little experience at the varsity level. “We have a lot of kids on the team this year with little or no varsity experience,” Karibian said. “It's a chance for them to learn the game, but being in the Southwestern Conference is tough. There's several teams who have several returning players this year, but we realize the task at hand is going to be hard. We just want to keep getting better every day.

“It's a great opportunity to coach here and give back to the community and to the  program here at many different levels. I owe much to the coaches I had in high school, like John Van Buskirk and Al Lobdell (who was the tennis coach at Granite City when Karibian played).”

The community has welcomed Karibian to his new position. “Everyone here has been really receptive,” Karibian said. “We've had some good crowds at our home games and we just want to keep getting better day by day.”

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