Who is Maxime Gratton?

A perspective from one of McMaster’s most recognized student-athletes on being perceived by others in the athlete spotlight

The McMaster men’s volleyball team has been characterized by winning. They are the reigning Ontario University Athletics champions and have been for the past three years.

The team’s success has in part granted them an increase in popularity. The Marauders men’s team is no stranger to selling out their home gym, the Burridge Gym, with many students attending the team’s games. 

Maxime Gratton, a fifth-year outside hitter for the team, spoke about the experience of seeing the amount of people who attend the team’s games.

“There was a massive boom, regular season games were selling out. So you can't deny that there's people watching. I was lucky because I was one of the leaders on the court and I was playing pretty well," said Gratton.

Gratton discussed how the consistently large turnout of fans has helped to fuel him and his team in the previous year.

"On the court, when I was playing it was fun, it was fueling me. It was like people care about this, it's awesome. From my perspective I spent so much time struggling with this sport, I've had a really tough time with this sport. It's an up and down relationship for me, but last year was a breath of fresh air,” said Gratton.

The team's success and resulting popularity have led to individual players becoming popular amongst McMaster students. Gratton is no exception to this.

Gratton has been a key player for the Marauders. He has racked up numerous accolades such as OUA Rookie of the Year, OUA First Team All Star and USport’s First Team All Star. 

These distinctions have granted him popularity in other areas, specifically on social media. Gratton has one of the highest Instagram follower counts of all current McMaster athletes, sitting at about 4,000 followers. He is also often featured on the team’s social media pages, which receive many views and likes. 

Despite his social media presence, Gratton actually sees himself as quite reserved. He reflected on how different his life was growing up, compared to the life that has come with university volleyball.

“Until I went into university, I was very reserved and I was very introverted and kind of in my own world. Then, coming here and last year having all these eyes because, we had that going for the first two years, but it wasn't as big as when it really hit last year. That was something I really struggled with," said Gratton.

Gratton told the Silhouette that he reflects on how with all of this attention, many students likely have preconceived ideas about him without even knowing him personally.

“I have this sense that there are a lot of predisposed ideas of who I am, before actually getting to know me. I mean I guess it's whatever, because you know people talk, it is what it is. But yeah, I would agree with you that there's a sense that some people have made up their minds on some aspects of who I am," said Gratton.

Many viral videos on social media feature Gratton's explosive playing style and high-energy celebrations. However, Gratton feels the player on the screen is not an indication of who he is day-to-day.

"When I play for example, I'm very, I call it, passionate. But it comes across as sometimes I'm very angry or some people can say that I'm a hothead or stuff like that. There's all these things, where when I'm outside of the court, I'm actually quite calm and I'm much more chill. I promise, it's just that the sport kind of brings that out of me and so that's an example of people maybe saying “oh really, you're not angry all the time.” I'm like, no, I'm not angry all the time." It's not who I am outside of the court. So yeah, there are some predisposed kinds of biases, I guess. But again, I just view it as normal and there's nothing you can really do about it,” said Gratton.

Gratton also reflected on how the thoughts of students who don't even know him have affected him. While this used to bother him, he feels as though he can better navigate these situations now.

"Some things that I was hearing were very nice, but there were also some things that I was hearing that messed with me, because they were taken out of context or sometimes just straight-up lies that are being told by people and in a harmful way . . . it was becoming kind of a problem, for me, just because I didn't know how to navigate this,” said Gratton. 

Gratton shared that he feels his popularity with the student body has led people to view him as a persona, rather than a whole person.

“Like I said already, like this objective I think since some people view me as a superficial persona, then they're gonna treat me as such, then it's gonna be a little difficult for me to open up to them, or for them to open up to me,” said Gratton.

However, his rise as a popular student-athlete has not been entirely negative. Gratton described how people knowing him from sport has also helped him outside of his athletic career.

“It's facilitated me connecting with people because like let's say people do know that I'm on the volleyball team then I feel like they already know a pretty big part of my life. I've made some friends who the only thing they knew about me before was me playing volleyball and then coming from a background where I was a bit more isolated. It is like there's something to build from. It can be used as something a bit more superficial about me that we can build from. But then from there, we can branch out and actually I can get to know you, they can get to know me, on a different level,” said Gratton.

As Gratton continues his career at McMaster, he has gained a unique perspective from his time as a student-athlete.