After bad break, Benet senior's desire says a mouthful

You can try, but good luck getting one word out of Benet senior Mike Chiaro.

He's probably dying to talk baseball - or talk, period. Since taking a foul ball below the right ear while standing in the on-deck circle April 13 at Conant, the Redwings' No. 1 pitcher and left fielder had his jaw wired shut to heal a jawbone broken in two places.

"He didn't even fall down," Benet baseball coach Jeff Bonebrake said of the fateful foul. "He stayed up. We sat him down and had to kind of convince him he had to go to the hospital. He wanted to stay in the game."

That's the spunk DePauw University saw in Chiaro - as well as the skill and potential in a body that's grown 8 inches since he arrived at Benet.

Chiaro sat out two games then returned to duty using no protection other than an extension on his batting helmet. He ran and dove in the outfield without fear.

Chiaro returned to the mound April 26 at Marian Catholic, a complete-game 2-1 loss. Overall, with his mouth wired shut Chiaro went 2-1 with 3 complete games, striking out 17 batters in 20 innings while allowing but 3 earned runs. He also smacked a home run at the plate.

"I've heard of people breaking their jaws, but I've never really had a player play with it," Bonebrake said. "It's something you really don't notice unless you talk with him. In the outfield, obviously, you didn't hear him call for balls."

The Milkshake Kid returned to the doctor's office last week, hoping to get the wires loosened on his jaw harness. Instead, doctors found the jaw had shifted. To ward off any further movement and subsequent nerve damage, on Wednesday Chiaro went in for surgery.

He delivered the Redwings a lovely parting gift. In the last game of his prep career, on Monday the 6-foot right-hander Chiaro threw a 5-hitter in a 6-2 win over Joliet Catholic, improving to 4-2 on the season.

"I feel bad for Mike that his season has to end prematurely," Bonebrake said. "At the same time for him go out there and pitch and hit showed a lot of courage, a lot of guts. I think ending his career by beating Joliet Catholic was a great way for him to step out of a Benet uniform."

Bonebrake believes we might hear more from Chiaro in the future - one way or another.

"I really think that his best days are ahead of him, in terms of he's grown so much, he's going to get stronger and his velocity's going to get better," the coach said. "I could see him being a draft pick out of college."

Catching up with Olivia Schwartz and Abbey WhiteOlivia Schwartz and Abbey White, Glenbard West's No. 1 doubles team in badminton, are returning to Charleston for this weekend's state tournament. It's a second sport for these seniors - White will play basketball at Illinois Wesleyan, Schwartz is an all-state tennis player - but in badminton they reached the 2009 top 16 and are two-time West Suburban Silver champions and two-time sectional champs. Friends since their fathers coached the same youth basketball team in Glen Ellyn, their relationship is to the point where they finish each other's sentences. A high-spirited conversation (OK, mainly just listening) reminds us why we play athletics - for fun.Q: What do you enjoy about badminton?Abbey: For me, at least, coming off of basketball it's more relaxing, you could say. It's a lot more laid back. I started playing it freshman year and I fell in love with it.Olivia: I think it's the same for me. Both of us have our other sports that are more competitive, our No. 1 sport kind of thing ... whereas badminton, it's kind of nice to have like a no-pressure (sport), just doing it for fun. It's quick and the season's really short, too.A: It's also a really fun game to play, anyway. O: Yeah.A: I love playing it, personally.O: With Abbey.Q: Why doubles? O: It's more fun having someone else out there with you. Singles, you tend to get frustrated. Singles, it's more like skill shots whereas doubles is more working with your partner.A: Olivia said it perfectly.Q: Abbey, you mentioned that your opponents often think you and Olivia are twins. Can you explain?A: A lot of people think we're twins because we actually have matching headbands and matching shoes with hot pink shoelaces.O: We basically try to match completely. Some people, like, kind of get us confused, so they won't know who to hit it to. Every time we introduce ourselves at the beginning of the match everyone's always like, "Oh my gosh, you guys must be twins." We're like, "Actually no, we're not related."A: And we have like the same color hair...O: ... same skin color, hair color, stuff like that, so a lot of people get us mixed up.Q: For this downstate trip, would you consider getting a mohawk or dying your hair?O: Uh, no. I don't really think that has crossed my mind.A: Well, we matched our grips. We have hot pink shoelaces so we matched our grips...O: Yes, but nothing, like, too dramatic. It's not really like...A: You maybe thought that we're crazy.Q: Not at all. Do you have a favorite badminton shot?O: We like to smash.A: Yeah, we have pretty powerful smashes, so...O: We try to end every point with a smash. We try to smash as much as we possibly can.A: Yeah, we try to set it up so other teams give us like a...O: A bad, bad, clear...A: ... and then we just smash it in their faces.O: But then when it comes back the other way it's not as much fun...A: Yeah.O: ... when they smash at us.Q: Do you have a special handshake or something you use to celebrate after a point?A: After every point, usually...O: We high-five...A: We high-five.O: Especially in tennis, too, and badminton, doubles teams will do a racket-tap thing. We high-five.A: Yeah, we high-five.Home away from homeElfstrom Stadium in Geneva, home of the Kane County Cougars, will host a couple prep baseball games next week featuring local teams trying to raise cash for good causes.St. Francis will present its first "Strike Out Cancer" fundraiser in tandem with the Spartans' ballgame against Aurora Central Catholic at 7 p.m. May 18. At 7 p.m. Friday, May 21, Glenbard South and Glenbard West square off in the Crosstown Classic also at Elfstrom. Proceeds benefit the Pierre Washington Steel Scholarship Fund and the Whitley family, remembering the late Glenbard West athlete.