SUNY Brockport Department of Athletics announced the hiring of Brockport alum Joseph Quattrone ‘16 as the new Head Strength and Conditioning Coach. Before returning to Brockport, Coach Quattrone coached in a variety of athletic and military environments, having worked within SUNY Stony Brook athletics for over five years, and at Fort Drum, training active-duty soldiers since January 2022. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Joe back to Brockport,” SUNY Brockport Athletic Director Erik hart said. “His diverse experiences working with Division I athletes, tactical populations, and right here at Brockport make him uniquely prepared to lead our strength and conditioning program. Joe’s passion, energy, and commitment to athlete development will be a tremendous asset to our student-athletes and coaching staff.” 

Coach Quattrone had his heart set on pursuing a degree in exercise science before coming to Brockport. Beginning training with his first mentor, former Brockport Strength and Conditioning Coach and current Head Coach of Track & Field Ed Jaskulski, Brockport shaped who Coach Quattrone would later become as he embarked upon his career in strength coaching. 

“I knew I wanted exercise science, and I was just gravitating towards Brockport,” Quattrone said. “I had never visited for a tour or anything. I just submitted the application, and then the offer came. I always felt this kind of draw to Brockport for some reason, and it has worked out. I pestered the original strength and conditioning coach, Ed Jaskulski. Because I was the ‘narp’, he vetted me a lot. It took me about two or three months to finally wear him down, and we were in this office, and he just looked out to the weight room floor, put his hand out, and said, ‘Well, I’ll go coach if you want it so bad’, and so I just went out and started coaching.” 

Jaskulski recalls Quattrone’s eagerness to break into the profession while at Brockport, giving an insight into his early involvement with Brockport strength and conditioning. 

“Coach Quattrone was one of my earliest strength and conditioning students when I was still teaching a couple of different classes for KSSPE here,” Jaskulski said. “He wanted to be a part of my little strength and conditioning crew then. He would literally call me, email me, text me, every day. ‘Coach, I want to be in the Tuttle South weight room. I want to be around the sports teams.’ I had a couple of interns and practicum kids that would lift with me personally, and he was like, ‘I want to be in that group, how do I get into that training group?’ That was Joe’s introduction to me and strength and conditioning. He just whittled me down over time, and I buckled. That was our introduction to each other. We have just stayed connected ever since.” 

Following his time at Brockport, Quattrone completed an internship with SUNY Stony Brook’s athletic staff, where he continued coaching for over five years. Under the guidance of his boss, Quattrone began his first paid job as a strength coach.  

Through hard work and dedication, Quattrone rose through the ranks, eventually being named the Assistant Director of Athletic Performance in May of 2018. 

During his time at Stony Brook, Quattrone worked directly with the women’s basketball team. During this span, the team was above .500 in winning percentage and eventually received votes for the NCAA DI Top 25. 

“Being able to be part of the most winningest team that Stony Brook Women’s Basketball has ever produced was awesome,” Quattrone said. “Within the three years I was with them directly, there was not a single losing season, and we kept on getting better to the point where we had a 28-3 overall record the year of COVID. We were expected to go pretty far, and we were, for the first time in Stony Brook history, receiving Top 25 polling votes. We had beaten some good power five schools that year.” 

Following his time working with SUNY Stony Brook’s women’s basketball and football teams, Quattrone was ready for a career change. He wanted something different than collegiate athletics, and it was the army that allowed him to get a completely different perspective on training individuals. 

“When I was done there, I was not sure if I wanted to stay collegiate, and I wanted to change things up a little bit.,” Quattrone said. “The army had created this system called Holistic Health and Fitness and it’s a human performance model, so it’s all different aspects. You have occupational therapists, nutritionists, dietitians, strength coaches, athletic trainers, you name it, it’s on that staff. I was like ‘this seems really cool’ and I’m going to serve the country in a cool way. I was a true civilian, but I was working with service members who were in deployment cycles. It is very rewarding to train those individuals and challenging in a good way.” 

However, Quattrone’s time away from the collegiate grind made him hungry to return to college athletics. With the assurance of his family, he began his search to return to campus. 

“But there was a little itch that I wanted to come back to college, and my wife stated that it would only be for the right job,” Quattrone said. “She saw how I was at the division one level, and she was like ‘I think division three might be a better fit for you.’ It was always ‘for the right fit.”  

As the months passed and the school year began, Quattrone doubted the availability for any collegiate strength and conditioning coaching positions. However, as August approached, he received a text from his mentor that completely changed his path, bringing him back home to the nest. 

“My old mentor in early August sent me a text that was a link to the posting for SUNY Brockport’s head strength and conditioning job,” Quattrone said. “I was already looking at jobs all summer, and I was like, ‘DIII school is starting up again, nobody is hiring,’ so I stopped looking. It was a random text on a random day, and I showed it to my wife, and she said, ‘You need to apply to this, we need to go back’. It was amazing, I’m so happy I did, I’m so happy to be back here.” 

In the nine years since leaving Brockport, Quattrone has had a variety of environments to continue evolving and developing his skills and methodologies, highlighted by Assistant Brockport Strength and Conditioning coach Zach Blishak. 

“He brings a fresh set of eyes,” Blishak said. “He brings something that hasn’t necessarily been seen at Brockport in a long time, if ever. I think from a Division I background, he has a lot more experience and a lot of different experiences with strength and conditioning than most people expect, just because of the nature of the divisions. I also think that being in the military, he has an idea of how to run a room effectively and efficiently, differently from traditional athletic strength and conditioning coaches. Being from here, he still has a lot of passion for the school and knows what has been lacking and what is needed to grow the department.  

Blishak’s first impression of Quattrone through the interview process intrigued him, as Quattrone was already engaging extensively with the strength and conditioning staff. 

“My first impression of him was when he came in for the interview, and I was very surprised about him because he came in and knew who me and Alex [Testa] were, and knew some things about us, he started asking us questions about our personal lives and also about what we do here now,” Blishak said. “It left a very good impression on us, and when he got here, it was more of the same, where he very quickly started talking to us about our own coaching philosophies, methods and about how we are as people. That brought us a sense of relief and joy.” 

In his first weeks back at Brockport, it has been displayed that Quattrone truly cares about the athletes, even outside of their athletic environments. 

“I think that he’s very personable, which makes him a very good fit,” Blishak said. “I don’t think that he is the type of guy to be, not cold to an athlete, but not understanding. He understands what athletes go through mentally, physically, and emotionally. He sees an athlete for the whole picture, and not just for their sport. A lot of people will appreciate that once they get to know him a little bit more.” 

In addition to the excitement of the existing strength staff, Jaskulski is excited to bring in a new coach that has been involved with the strength program here at Brockport since the very beginning. 

“I was very excited,” Jaskulski said. “To bring an alum back, and especially someone who was involved with the earlies workings of our strength and conditioning program here at Brockport. He was there at the beginning of us really getting stronger and conditioning up and going. To have one of those keystone people back in the mix, he can bring all of his knowledge that he has acquired since he left and put his own spin on a program that he was in the early development of. Now, it’s a full circle moment.”
As Quattrone works to make his mark at Brockport, he has already established new protocols on concussions and hamstrings to ensure athletes are fully healthy before returning to action. In addition, Quattrone is actively working on new ideas to further involve other aspects of athletics and health to ensure athletes find a balance in a healthy lifestyle, while further ensuring strong relationships are built and maintained throughout the SUNY Brockport KSSPE department and Brockport Athletics.  

“Who do we need to implement this or administer the program, and over time as the staffs develop and start to work more collaboratively, it can get better for what Brockport needs,” Quattrone said. “We are trying to get to that collaborative effort. We are going to tie in more with strength and conditioning, nutrition, athletic training, and mental performance. The building blocks are there; it’s just a matter of good relationships being built for the future.” 

As for the future of Brockport strength and conditioning, the impacts of Quattrone’s presence are already being felt, and reassuring many surrounding the department that the weight room and conditioning programs are in good hands going forward, while aiming to further increase national recognition for Brockport. 

“I’m excited to see how the athletes get better and more bought into what we do,” Blishak said. “We have a very good culture in strength and conditioning as of right now, and people look forward to coming into this room. I’m curious as to how far that advances and how many more people want to come into this room, and if we can turn this place into something that he has talked about for a long time. He wants to turn this place into something that is nationally recognized. I’m excited to see if he can change the culture in here to have the athletes promote this place the same way he wants to promote this place.” 

Jaskulski holds coach Quattrone’s potential going forward in high regard, as he looks forward to the development of Brockport’s student athletes, especially those under his care. 

“I love watching the program continue to grow, [I’m] clearly looking forward to the new weight room project in the next couple of years,” Jaskulski said. “And to see kids just start to enjoy the room, again, enjoy being strong, and embrace being strong. There is no substitute for strength. You could be the best athlete, have the most talent, but there is no substitute for strength. Under Coach [Quattrone], we will start to see some of that old school thought process come to light again; get kids strong enough to train and continue to modify their training methodology into their sport, once they’re in the right shape to be the athlete that you want them to be.” 

Quattrone wants the strength program at Brockport to be known, while ensuring that himself and his staff are successful in their mission of improving the lives of their athletes not just in action, but the overall mental and physical health going forward. Techniques learned during his tenures in the army and at Stony Brook will help him ensure that the environment he creates is successful, which shows that what he is doing is beneficial for student-athletes, athletic teams, and Brockport in a whole.