Pat Turcotte, a dedicated official, retired at the end of the 2025 season. We wanted to celebrate his accomplishments and asked a few officials to speak to the impact Pat had during his tenure. Here is what they had to say:
Pat at his last Ringette Ontario Provincial AA Championships as a Supervising Official in West Ottawa, 2025.
The end of a Ringette season brings with it many of the same feelings players and coaches go through...relief, healing, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. But for one referee, the end of the 2024-2025 season brings with it a new feeling.
For longtime referee Pat Turcotte, this is the end. He is hanging up his skates and walking into a much deserved retirement. Pat started his Ringette journey (in or around 29 years ago) as a coach for his daughter's teams out of Caledonia.
After a few seasons, he decided he wanted to give officiating a try, and since he was dragging his son around to all of the games anyways…he teamed up with Tom and took their first officiating clinic together. They would go out to ref many games together for some fun Dad and son time. Tom said that there were many family dinners where he and his Dad would talk about different situations, rule interpretations and how they viewed a call. Knowing the two Turcotte boys…these would have been some memorable meals.
It wasn’t too long after that Pat decided to try his hand at evaluating…this is how many of “us” know him today. Pat was a natural when it came to being an evaluator. He watches the game and focuses his evaluations on learning, and not pointing out errors. He felt that walking you through the rules, and discussing the situation would allow the referee to grow and develop skills to take with them. Tom said that he was proud of his Dad and enjoyed watching him move up through the evaluator ranks. And that he did. Pat became a Provincial evaluator and he became a staple of the Provincial Championships as an off- ice supervisor at both the “A” and “AA” levels.
For 20 seasons, he would be at the arena from the first game of the day until the last, working to better others. He also worked several seasons at the National level, again as an off-ice supervisor. Pat’s dedication, approach, knowledge and humbleness saw him have a lot of success at these events. In talking with Tom, he mentioned that even with that success, Pat was honoured each year he was selected, and never took the following season for granted.
Pat also gave his time to the program by being the Evaluations Coordinator for many seasons. Pat would receive hundreds of evaluations every season, and he would input, and update the ranking database to ensure its accuracy. He spent many hours on top of those at the arena, to help the Officiating Program in Ontario become strong and successful.
Simply put, Pat's absence from Ringette will be felt throughout the program.
We will miss his dedication, humour and calmness. We are all better referees because of Pat.
We wish him all the best away from the arena. We hope you continue to travel both with Lynda and your men’s hockey team. Pat just remember this…Once a ref, always a ref…and our door is always open.
