Throughout the fall semester, daemenwildcats.com will feature profiles on the "residents of #DCWildcatNation" to introduce you to the coaches, administrators and athletic trainers at Daemen College. These dedicated professionals work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure Daemen's place as Western New York's Premier Division II Team. Today's featured staff member is Pete Gratien, head men's and women's cross country/track and field coach.

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QUICK BIO
As part of a restructuring of the leadership positions for the Daemen College men's and women's cross country/track and field programs, Pete Gratien was named head coach in June 2019. His rise to the head coaching position came after spending time as a volunteer assistant coach, working primarily with the team's sprinters during the 2018-19 season. 
 
Gratien is a former NCAA Division II student-athlete at Le Moyne College who has risen up the coaching ranks in recent years. After earning a degree in chemistry from Le Moyne and working as a process control laboratory manager from 2010-16, Gratien has found his calling as coach. Before being appointed at Daemen, Gratien served as the head girls cross country and track and field coach at Williamsville North High School. Under his tutelage, the teams saw a steady increase in roster numbers and competitiveness.
 
A four-year member of Le Moyne's cross country team, Gratien was the Dolphins' top finisher during regional championship meets in 2005, 2006 and 2008. He was also named the 2016 Buffalo News Men's Runner of the Year.

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QUESTION & ANSWER
Q: Where did you grow up? Did you stay in one place or move around a lot?
A: I grew up in East Syracuse, N.Y. I lived there my whole life until 2010 when I moved to Buffalo.
 
Q: What is your fondest childhood memory?
A: My fondest childhood memory is all the time I spent catching frogs at my grandparents' house.
 
Q: Who was your childhood idol and why?
A: My childhood idol was Derek Jeter. I grew up playing a lot of baseball. My primary position was shortstop, and when I was in little league, Derek Jeter was the star newcomer winning world series for the Yankees.
 

Q: What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies and interests?
A: I like to train and run in races. My wife, Kelsey, loves this as well so it's a good hobby from a family perspective. I also enjoy doing woodworking projects, but I'm not that good yet.
 

 















Q: Where did you meet your wife? Do you have any children?
A: Kelsey and I met at Le Moyne College, during preseason of our freshman year of cross country. We have three children together: six-year old Ruth, five-year old Molly, and three-year old Ryan. We also have a dog named Feebee.
 

Q: What is your favorite season and why?
A: My favorite season is fall. I love when the temperature begins to drop and runs become easier. My kids go to school in the fall, and all the excitement of a new school year, Halloween, and leaves changing is a lot of fun. The fall is also cross country season, and I compete in a Club XC cross country series. For me, running cross country is so much more fun than running on a road or on a track.
 
Q: What was your first job growing up?
A: My first job growing up was for a construction company. I would drive a truck around, doing all of the dirty, monotonous, time consuming jobs that the skilled laborers didn't want to do.

Q: When did you know you wanted to go into a career in collegiate athletics?
A: While I was still in undergrad, I thought I would enjoy coaching a college team. I also got my strength and conditioning certification right after college hoping I could get a gig as an assistant strength and conditioning coach somewhere. I ended up getting a job related to chemistry, which was my field of study, so I didn't pursue coaching until 2016 when I had an opportunity for a career change.
 
Q: Who are the people you consider to be your greatest mentors?
A: My biggest mentors growing up were my grandparents and parents. I had a very solid family life, and I now realize that helped prepare me to be a better parent today. Athletically, I'm lucky to have been around a ton of excellent former runners and coaches, but currently the coach I'm learning the most from is Judy Arlington!
 
Q: What is the best advice you ever received and who did it come from?
A: My parents told me at some point, "just be yourself and it will all work out," or something to that effect. It has served me well so far!

Q: If you didn't work in collegiate athletics, what job do you think you'd have?
A: If I wasn't in collegiate athletics I would be working in an industry involving electrochemical processes. I've worked as a chemical process engineer for two different companies. One was a precious metals electroplating company, where we added metal to metal. The other company was a photochemical etching company where we removed metal from metal.
 

Q: Besides Daemen, what are the teams or who are the athletes you root for most?
A: Growing up in Syracuse, I'm a big Syracuse University basketball fan. I also watch a good deal of pro track and field and road racing. I'd say my favorite pro runner is Lopez Lomong because I used to race against him in high school.

Q: Where did you go on your most memorable vacation? What made it memorable?
A: My most memorable vacation is from my senior year of college. My parents took me and my brothers to Rome, Italy for a couple weeks. We were there for New Years Eve, and it was really cool to see how people around the world celebrated the new year.
 

 














Q: What is one place you haven't visited, but definitely plan to someday?
A: I would like to go out west and visit some of the national parks.

Q: If you could have dinner with any three people, living or deceased, who would they be and why?
A: Mariano Rivera, because he is was the best finisher of all time in any sport, in my opinion. Jenny Simpson, because she is one of my all time favorite runners to watch race. And Hakim Warrick, so I could thank him for blocking that corner three-pointer in the 2003 national championship game to seal Syracuse's win.

 Q: What is your biggest fear?
A: I don't have any phobias or anything like that, but I'm not a huge fan of the ocean. I will swim in the ocean, but very reluctantly. There are too many things that can bite or sting you for my liking.

Q: If you were singing karaoke, what would be your go-to song?
A: Closing Time by Semisonic, because I'm pretty sure they'd have to close the place after I sang it.

Q: Is there anything you would like to do or accomplish in your life that you haven't done yet?
A: I would like to run a decent marathon. I've run the distance before, but I've never really raced it.

Q: If you were ever on Jeopardy, what is the interesting fact or experience about yourself that you'd choose to discuss with Alex Trebek?
A: My grandfather is named Peter, and he was a runner and majored in chemistry at Le Moyne College. My name is Peter, I am a runner and majored in chemistry at Le Moyne College some 51 years later.

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Daemen College features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.