Hockey’s history, perhaps more than any other sport, is stocked full of siblings playing at high levels: the Sedin twins, the Staal boys, and probably most famously, the Hanson brothers (no, not the band).
This year, Ohio got its very own brother act when Ross Pilmore, a freshman defenseman, joined his older brother and junior forward Tyler as a Bobcat. The double shot of Pilmore has been a boon to the team in its 6-1-0 start.
The elder brother has developed a reputation as one of the hardest workers on the team, and his younger brother is quickly developing a similar work ethic.
“(Ross) has still got some way to go, but he’s got the Pilmore gene in him to work hard and be intense, and he brings that every day,” coach Dan Morris said. “Tyler’s a perfectionist. Ross has a little bit of that, but he’s scaled back a little more. But not much.”
Injury problems have allowed Ross to take on a much more substantial role than Morris originally projected on Ohio’s blue line, where he’s played significant minutes in all seven of the Bobcats’ early season games.
“Ross has been given the opportunity and he’s playing really well. He’s in significantly better shape than he’s ever been,” Morris said. “He’s been a pleasant surprise for us.”
Like Tyler, Ross played junior hockey for the Toledo Cherokee near the pair’s hometown of Sylvania. While he looked at other colleges, Ross said the final decision to follow his older brother to Athens wasn’t a hard one.
“I got a chance to come to campus and skate with the team once, and I really loved the campus and the guys on the team,” he said. “So I thought this would be the perfect place to come.”
Knowing Tyler’s character made the decision to bring in a blue-liner of the same bloodline easy, Morris said.
Although they followed a similar path to Athens, this season marks the first time the brothers, 3 and a half years apart in age, have ever played on the same team.
Though that age gap prevented the two from ever playing together on the ice, it didn’t stop them from developing a sibling rivalry off it.
Reportedly, games of kickball could become especially heated.
“Both of us I think are obviously extremely competitive, so growing up we butted heads a lot in whatever sport we were playing,” Tyler said. “But as we’ve grown older, I think we’ve become pretty good friends and we’re at that age where we’re friends, not rivals.
“We didn’t think we were ever going to have the opportunity, so it’s pretty special to be able to play together.”
But the big brother-little brother dynamic, novel to both on the ice, was evident early on this year.
“Tyler would treat Ross differently than he would another teammate, and that’s OK in some circumstances, but not on the ice,” Morris said. “And Tyler learned that pretty quick, that it’s a different dynamic as a teammate.”
Bridging that gap and learning to walk the fine line between teammate and older brother is something both coach and player agreed Tyler has adjusted to much better a month into the season.
“As Coach told me earlier in the year, it’s definitely going to be different for me as the older brother,” Tyler said. “At the same time, I’ve got to look out for him and try to help him as much as possible, and I can’t look at him as a brother, but as a teammate.”
For his part, Ross is perfectly happy to take a little more flak if it yields him a higher hockey IQ.
“It’s actually kind of nice since he’s one of the leaders on the team, whenever I need help with anything I can call on my brother since I know him so well,” Ross said. “As a veteran, he can be out there and tell me, ‘Hey, this is what you need to do.’?”
cd211209@ohiou.edu
