McGill, St. FX grad Nathan Chiarlitti joins Gee-Gees coaching staff

After going head to head against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees Men's Hockey team for two seasons, including a gruelling three game playoff series last spring, former McGill Redmen captain Nathan Chiarlitti is set to join the Garnet and Grey.

Over the course of an esteemed five-year university hockey career, Chiarlitti earned a Bachelor of Science, Kinesiology and Exercise Science at St. Francis Xavier University and a Master's of Science, Kinesiology and Exercise Science at McGill University.

He has also received several rewards over his career in recognition of his achievements on and off the ice. Chiarlitti was recently named one of two Canadian students to earn the Google Cloud Academic All-America honours, which recognizes top student-athletes in North America. Among other awards, Chiarlitti earned the Guy Lafleur Award last summer, with recognizes the player who best combines hockey success with academic achievement and citizenship. 

Chiarlitti's academic career will continue here at the uOttawa, where he has received an admission offer for medical school. "I'll be completing my MD and my PhD over the next seven years, so I'm pretty fired up to be here and excited to still be involved with hockey," Chiarlitti said.

The Maple, Ont. native joins the coaching staff alongside Head Coach Patrick Grandmaitre and fellow Assistant Coaches Brent Sullivan and Christian Gaudet.

"I'm going to be all over the place, get to practices when I can," Chiarlitti explained. "The way I envision it and the way our coaching staff has talked about is to be a resource for the players. Leadership questions, how to balance things, life after hockey — I want to try and be a versatile option for players to go to and ask questions."

"Hockey player aside, he's a outstanding individual. Nathan has strong character, he's been a leader everywhere he's been. Just to have him around, even if it's only a few times a month, it's a huge boost for our program," Sullivan said.

Competing against the Gee-Gees over the past two seasons left a lasting impression on him. Chiarlitti noted that of all teams McGill faced, he cited uOttawa as one of the toughest for the Redmen to play against.

"The team is competitive, relentless and just grinds. You saw in our playoff series last year, it was not a walk in the park for either side," he said. "That has to do a lot with the character in the dressing room and the people behind the scenes."

With the Gee-Gees, Chiarlitti will work alongside some familiar faces from earlier in his career. He was teammates with captain Eric Locke for two seasons at St. FX where they both racked up several team and individual accolades.

"[Locke] did a ton for the program there. We won an AUS Championship and a CIS Silver Medal together. We've been through a lot and I'm excited to be reunited. He's a solid all around person and good to be on the same team again," Chiarlitti said.

Meanwhile, Chiarlitti and Sullivan were defensive partners with the OHL's Sarnia Sting from 2008-2011. Sullivan described it as an exciting moment for the two to be able to coach together after first meeting years ago

"When we first crossed paths in Sarnia together, he was a young kid with a bright mind and was going to be successful no matter what he did," Sullivan said "When we knew he was getting into uOttawa Med, both Pat and I knew he was someone who we wanted around this program."

The Gee-Gees are set to return to the ice on September 22 when they host the St. FX X-Men. The game will feature Grandmaître and Locke taking on their alma matter for the first time, while Chiarlitti will greet the X-Men as an opponent for the second time in his career.

- Cameron Penney