Coach Clouser Confident in Father McGivney Players’ Postseason Potential

GLEN CARBON - Father McGivney Catholic's boys dropped a contest to Marquette Catholic 59-23 at home, but the Griffins' Head Coach Cory Clouser is still optimistic about the remaining portion of the 2025-2026 campaign. It's still turning out to be the best season in the program's history, and there's still much to be proud of for McGivney.

"I am proud of the accomplishments so far," Clouser said. "We have 15 wins thus far, but we need to finish strong. We can't just celebrate what we have accomplished; every game's a new challenge. We have never beaten Marquette before, and that's a huge goal.

"That's why there was such a big crowd tonight, that's why there was a packed house, because our students, our school, want to beat Marquette, to win this rivalry game. We know how good they are and how good a program they are. We just have to keep getting better."

Although it's been a season of great accomplishment for the Griffins, Clouser isn't ready to rest on his laurels just yet.

"Our kids have done a lot of good things this year," Clouser said. "We have had some good wins, we won a tournament, I thought we did pretty well at Litchfield, against the quality competition there. We've had a couple of big comeback wins; these kids keep fighting for us and our program. I'm really proud of them."

The McGivney team's goals and aspirations for the upcoming Class 2A playoffs - the first time the Griffins have played in a higher class in the school's history, after playing in Class 1A since the team's founding - haven't changed at all. Just keep going and go as far as possible.

"Just keep adding to it," Clouser said, "and advance as far as we can, take it one game at a time. Obviously, you don't know your match-up yet. You know your (regional), but you don't know who exactly you're going to play. So, start scouting those teams, really get familiar with who you could be matching up against, and go from there."

Clouser does feel his players are confident about having a good run in the postseason.

"I think they're confident," Clouser said. "I think they know what they've accomplished, but they also know that this is our first year in 2A, and these teams are going to be a challenge for us. We have tested ourselves with our schedule; we have played against Marquette and (Belleville) Althoff (Catholic) in conference, and it prepares you for that.

"However, our goal as a program is to surpass the Althoffs and the Marquettes and compete with the elite teams in our conference. Just proud of our guys; they fought to the end."

McGivney improves to 15-12 on the season and stays in the GMC for their next two games, playing at Centralia Christ Our Rock Lutheran on Tuesday night and hosting Maryville Christian next Friday night, both games tipping off at 7:30 p.m. They then play at Jersey on Feb. 14 at 5:30 p.m.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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