Meet Rams men's basketball player Aaron Rhooms, in his element, on the court.
The team's 6-6 rookie demonstrates effort, sportsmanship, and leadership in his game, qualities one might not expect from an athlete so early in their U SPORTS career.
Strong on both offence and defence, Rhooms leads his team in points per game, rebounds and steals and ranks in the Top 10 scorers in the league.
Student sports news outlets call him the future Rookie of the Year, a "show-stealer", and more.
As a player, the Rams forward is fearless, equipped with insane wingspan, natural talent and the ability to connect the ball to the net seamlessly.
As a person, though, Aaron Rhooms is a polite rookie in his first season in the OUA who, upon hearing the media praise and performance statistics read aloud to him, grins sheepishly and looks down at the floor before letting out a quiet "thank you, haha."
Meet Aaron Rhooms, the person.
He is 19 years old and studies business management, hoping to pursue a career in human resources once he's retired from his sport. He enjoys video games and music, and is devoted to his faith in God.
And while he shyly accepts compliments on his game and recognizes how hard he works, he never forgets to attribute his success to the two big factors that drive his love for basketball and ambition to keep growing.
The first is his team.
Rhooms still remembers his first week of training camp with the Rams and the nickname they gave him early on.
"They called me Geodude," he says with a chuckle, thinking back to the moment in the weight room, when seasoned teammates Nick Hamilton and Jaren Jones approached him while he was using the bench press.
Geodude, as Rhooms came to understand, was a rock-shaped Pokémon with discernibly long arms who Hamilton and Jones thought bore some resemblance to the muscular, long-limbed rookie. And the name stuck.
"If you look the Pokémon up, it's not the most, um, flattering thing, but what can you do, right?," he laughs, shrugging his shoulders. "I was just thankful that this group of guys welcomed me with open arms."
Members of the Rams men's basketball team in order from left to right: (top) Elijah Roye, Ankit Choudhary, Kayode Fakomi; (bottom) Aaron Rhooms, Akeem Clarke, Jaren Jones)
Rhooms expands on how supportive the team and coaching staff is with one another. He's grateful to be able to learn from them and be a part of such a group he can laugh with, but who also pushes him to be the best player he can be.
"We trust each other, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to go as far as I can with these guys, under Coach Dave's direction," he says.
The other big factor, one that lives in both Rhooms's head and his heart everyday, on and off the court, is the reason he plays basketball: his father.
"My dad taught me how to dribble," he says, recalling hours spent shooting hoops as a child with basketball fan and loving father Roland Rhooms on their driveway. They'd go until the sunset cast orange and pink hues onto the backboard and day turned to a starry night.
The two would play whenever they had the chance, and as Rhooms got older and those around him began to take notice of his talent, the harder they worked to hone in on his skills. As he worked up to the Elite level, the Rams forward played for the Oakville Vytis while Roland worked as an Assistant Coach to the team.
Rhooms with his parents, Roland and Marcia Rhooms, after one of his high school games (Courtesy of Aaron Rhooms)
"I would miss a shot or make a bad play, and I would always look over to him from the sidelines and he would give me a nod," Rhooms says, "and I'd know I would be okay."
One of those starry nights, the summer before Rhooms started high school, the two were out late training and Roland asked his son if basketball was what he wanted to do with his life.
"I said yes," Rhooms says, "and from that point on, it was just grinding everyday, it was working out after school and getting shots in after those workouts. But I knew that this is what I wanted to do."
So he kept going. Throughout high school, the rookie did everything he could to maximize his chances of getting noticed, earning the title of two-time junior basketball MVP and All Catholic MVP, and hoped there would be a college basketball uniform in his future after graduation in 2020.
Roland Rhooms passed away in March of that year.
Around the same time, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, the NBA paused their season indefinitely, and Ontario went into lockdown.
"That was the lowest point in my life," Rhooms says, "I truly felt like there was no way out for how I was feeling."
But he found it eventually, through basketball.
"I just knew he would want me to keep going. I owed it to him and I owed it to myself," he says, "I'd worked so hard, so why was I going to stop now, you know?"
The rookie trained at Lincoln Prep for one year before signing on with the Rams.
Today, when Rhooms is out on the court, he plays for himself, his team, and his family.
When he finds himself struggling, he looks to his teammates, and he looks to the sidelines and thinks back to his dad cheering him on throughout the years. And he knows he's going to be okay.
