Saints Spotlight: Graham Houser

Graham Houser

Isabella Shultz | Crestview Hills, KY

February 18, 2026

For Graham Houser and the rest of the Houser family, their lives would be incomplete

without one game: lacrosse.

For some, the sport may be a simple pastime, but for the Houser household, it is a staple and way of life.

The game has brought their family closer together, especially for the two Houser boys,

whose relationship has grown stronger over the years because of it.

Graham Houser, a junior attackman and native of Hilliard, Ohio, has been playing lacrosse since he was in elementary school.

His size at such a young age once led him to believe that he had a passion for basketball. However, that quickly changed when his older brother Ben showed interest in a much different sport.

Houser did not know much about the game of lacrosse when he was that young, but he

knew that the one person in his family whom he truly looked up to could teach him everything.

The two brothers still had the typical older brother-younger brother relationship. “I've kind of always been known as Ben's younger brother,” said Graham. “We get

compared a lot, but he's always just kind of the person who pushed me when we were younger. My mom and dad … leaned on him to make sure I was doing good.”

During the days when Graham set down the basketball and picked up the lacrosse stick, the two Houser brothers developed a more player-coach type of relationship.

“Neither of our parents played the sport, and so my brother was a coaching figure all my life,” said Houser. “He would show up to my games, and he would never kind of yell at me or be like that parent who would correct me, but he would always be in the stands, and I could look up to him.”

As the two got older and Graham started high school, the pair became closer. Once

Graham started to look into college recruitment, the two started to leave behind any harshness that they still had towards each other.

During that time, Ben was playing college lacrosse at Illinois Wesleyan University and

knew all about the highs and lows of college athletics and its recruitment process.

Graham’s recruitment was anything but normal due to COVID, but there were also

daunting factors that loomed, such as the trials and tribulations that emerged from attending a high school with prestigious, dominant athletic programs.

“I came from a really prominent school in Columbus, and COVID had struck down my

sophomore season, and then my junior year, we had 20 seniors, so I was kind of at the ladder of the bench,” Houser said. “[I] never got a lot of playing time because there were a lot of kids that went to play college in front of me, but we made a giant run, and that kind of got exposure”.

From having worked his way into a starting role as he was destined for a breakout senior year, Graham knew that he wanted to play at a university where he could make an immediate impact. He had confidence in himself and his abilities and knew that his dedication would get him on the field.

“I stepped up into a starting role, and throughout the summer circuit, is when Coach

McGinnis reached out to me,” said Houser. “I think the deciding factor was how much I could play and what I could really do to impact the team. I didn't wanna go and sit on a bench and be part of an already established thing where I just had to fit in. I wanted to be myself, and I thought that was the best opportunity.”

During his time at Thomas More, Houser has scored over 40 goals and over 50 points and has been named a team captain.

However, none of the accolades topped the feeling of being able to play against his

brother during his junior year season.

During the 2025 season, the Saints scrimmaged against Capital University, where Ben is

now an assistant coach. Graham ultimately got the last laugh as the Saints won, but he says that it was something that the brothers had never gotten to do before.

“We talked some smack, and obviously it felt really good beating him,” said Graham.

“But seeing the person that I grew up with coaching against me, I was almost like using what he taught [me] against him. I never got the opportunity to play against him because he's older than me, but after the game, talking with him and seeing my family happy that we got to compete was kind of like a dream come true.”

Many praise Graham for his accomplishments on the field, though Houser credits all of

his success to his older brother. He plans on coaching after he graduates from Thomas More

because of his brother and the impact that it made on him growing up.

Going into his senior year, Graham hopes to one day make an impact on others’ lives in

the same way that his brother made an impact on him