The first family of Hamilton sports, V2.0
Before he stepped onto the ice for the Winnipeg Jets’ morning skate on Saturday, Hamilton’s Ben Chiarot took one last peek at his phone to check on the Ontario Hockey League draft. Then reached for his device again as soon as practice was done.
At St. Thomas More Secondary back here in Hamilton, one-time McMaster career scoring leader — and former European pro basketball player — Taylor Chiarot had her laptop cracked open all morning even as she was convening a tournament.
Keeping one eye on the draft and one eye on the games in front of her.
When she stepped away for a few minutes, her younger brother (who was helping her run things) maintained a vigil. That would be Josh Chiarot, who recently finished four years in the Ontario Junior Hockey League including parts of two seasons with the Hamilton Red Wings and plans to play for Brock University next year.
And at their home on the west mountain, Tara and Matt Chiarot — he being a former linebacker at Western, brother of a former linebacker at Mac and son of 1957 Grey Cup-winning Tiger-Cat, Gord — sat fitfully around the kitchen table watching every pick roll past on their screen.
“We were all eagerly watching,” Taylor says.
All waiting to see the youngest member of the family’s name pop up. That would be Aaron, a 16-year-old defenceman with size (six-foot-two and 190 pounds) and terrific athletic pedigree.
Few would argue that the Nurses are the first family of sports in Hamilton. Their tentacles that reach into every corner of high-level athletics ensure that. But with so many success stories to tell, the Chiarots should absolutely be part of that conversation, too.
“I think it’s because our whole family revolves around sports,” Taylor says.
Always has. Taylor was sitting on the
bench during an intense game in her rookie year at Mac when a teammate nudged her. Then pointed backwards toward the small foot bridge that connects the lobby to the bleachers at Burridge Gym. The one that’s about 15 feet above the ground.
“Isn’t that your brother hanging from the mezzanine?” she was asked. She denied it, she laughs now. But it was.
Aaron was five then. If he wasn’t at the Mac gym watching Taylor play, he’d be at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph cheering on Ben as he played for the OHL’s Storm. Or at one of Josh’s hockey games. Despite a big age difference (Aaron is 12 years younger than Taylor, 11 younger than Ben and five years younger than Josh), they’d all spend hours in the backyard throwing a baseball or football around.
When they weren’t doing that, a tiny Aaron would place pucks on a shooting pad in the driveway so Ben could practise his shot.
The brothers — who all shared a bedroom growing up — still work out together in the summer, skate together in the off-season and chat constantly. Ben just asked the Jets’ strength and conditioning coach to come up with a regimen for his kid brother. Which they’ll do together whenever the Stanley Cup playoffs end for him. It all made Saturday rather significant. Aaron sat with mom and dad in the kitchen and watched everything on the computer. He admits it was stressful as the rounds started to move along. He’d thought he might go in the third or fourth round. Yet as they blew by he remained unclaimed. Then the fifth and sixth and seventh passed with nothing.
“I knew eventually a team was going to pick me up,” he says. “(My parents) just told me it doesn’t matter where you go as long as you show up ready to go.”
In the ninth round, it happened. The Peterborough Petes took him sparking a brief-butexuberant celebration. One that added another chapter to the Chiarot family story. One that’s already rather long. Yet, with Taylor now coaching high school (her St. Thomas More junior girls won the city championship this season with her cousin on the roster) and college (she’s in her sixth year as assistant coach at Redeemer), and Ben vying for a Stanley Cup this spring — and now Aaron hopefully playing in the OHL and Josh for one of Canadian university’s top teams — it has a chance to get considerably longer before it’s done.