Princeton University Athletics
Adapting to Change
December 04, 2000 | General
Chris Gratian has a new role this season on the Princeton water polo team.
This season he is a co-captain along with fellow senior Jimmy Orozco. It means that Gratian shows more recruits around campus. He helps the freshman players acclimate to their first year. It meant he and Orozco had to run this past spring's practices. And it means that this season Gratian will be giving the pep talks before every Tiger contest.
"As a freshman, I remember Tucker Ferrara was the first person I heard give a good pep talk," says Gratian. "He brought tears to people's eyes. But that was a different team."
Gratian's role as co-captain is a big change, but it pales in comparison with the changes he has seen in the Princeton team in just over three years. The Tigers have steadily improved each year. They were 13-11 in his freshman year before current coach Luis Nicolao was hired, went 16-9 when he was a sophomore and upped that to 22-3 last year while winning their first-ever Southern Division title. Each of those years they've also climbed in the national rankings, where they finished 13th last year.
"When I came here, we did have talent," says Gratian, noting that Orozco and classmate Forrest Christo were high school All-Americas like he. "My freshman year there were some guys who got conference recognition. But my freshman year we were a small team. Now we have some big guys, and it's a lot different."
Despite his relatively short stature, the 5' 10" Gratian has always played big for the Tigers. His freshman year he led the team with 58 goals and followed it up with a team-high 80 goals as a sophomore. Last season his goal production fell to 50, but as his honorable mention All-America status proved, his importance to the Tigers did not. It shows instead the great strides that Princeton's program has made.
"In the past, we really relied on him to score goals," says Nicolao. "Last year, we got more balance with [now sophomores] Kevin Foster and Robert Urquhart. It took some pressure off him, and it made us a better team and him an even better player.
"And still, when we got in tough situations," he says, "Chris bailed us out with a score, or a perfect pass or even just by taking a shot at goal."
Gratian doesn't pay as much attention to his own accomplishments as he does to that of the team. The Modesto, Calif., resident was happy with last year's improvements, but he is looking for something special to close his intercollegiate career this season.
"I'd like to make it to the Final Four," Gratian says. "It's an attainable goal. We finished 22-3 and had the highest win percentage in the program's history, but we wanted to do better. We didn't make it to the Final Four, and that's the big thing."
To do so, Princeton will have to win the Collegiate Water Polo Association Eastern Championships to gain the automatic berth. And again this year Gratian won't have to do it all. He has plenty of help returning with seniors Orozco and Christo, and juniors Marshall Roslyn and goalie Jon Pharris, all who have been solid contributors in their careers. Add to them talented sophomores Urquhart and Foster, the latter an honorable mention All-America last season and most valuable player for the gold-medal-winning United States junior national team at this summer's Pan American Games, plus several strong incoming freshmen, and it should lighten the load on Gratian further.
"I'm very excited about having some of the scoring load shifted away from me," says Gratian, who entered this season the Tigers' career scoring leader. "Freshman year I remember winning some close games and really feeling a lot of pressure to score goals for us to win."
But the economics major isn't asking for an easier work-load. He continues to try to do the most, to work the hardest, because he believes he must. He plans to participate for a fourth year on the Princeton swim team this winter.
"A lot of programs won't let you do both," Gratian says. "I made it perfectly clear that I was a water polo player first, and I knew I was going to go ahead and swim. It keeps me in good shape, and if I lose my conditioning, I lose everything. I'm one of the smallest guys in Division I, and my game is definitely going to be speed."
With several guys in the 6' 5", 200-pound range, Gratian loves the fact that he can still push the ball for transition opportunities, but if Princeton doesn't get a quick goal, it also has a set offense that has scoring power. In the past, he says, if the Tigers didn't score in transition they had difficulty without any big guns inside.
"Every year we look to improve," Nicolao says. "In the East we've always been looked at as tough competition, but someone the top teams could beat. I think we've changed that. We're one of three or four favorites now."
For Gratian a Final Four berth would cap off a career that's been consistently good in the midst of rapid team improvement. It's something he would love to be able to reflect on after his career at Old Nassau ends.
"I'd like people to see the changes the program has made," Gratian says. "It's not something I'd take credit for. It's our whole senior class and a new coach who works so hard. I don't want to take credit, but I'd love to be associated with how this program's changed."
by Justin Fiel