Tom Hutchison

by Terry King (posted by Ron Pallister) (Premier Login olaf_admin)
Forum Owner

My thanks to Terry for providing his info with permission to post it.

Hi Ron:

Ron you have asked me to put together some information that you can use to do a Bio for Tom. I am not sure that I have all of the facts exactly correct, but here is some of the info I know about his past.



Tom was born November 14, 1967.

Played his lacrosse in the Sarnia area to the junior and senior level.

I think he even played at least one year for the Detroit Turbo of the old professional league.

Married to Margaret Hughes.

Daughter Sarah age 6

Son Jack age 4

I saw Hutch as a very dedicated family man who seemed to know how to balance his extra-curricular activities with family. They meant a great deal to him and he was careful to try and not overextend himself to the detriment of family time. (Many of the other officials that started when Hutch & I did gradually moved on to board officiating and did not have time to assist as they had in the past.) That in itself is why I felt so privileged that Hutch found time to assist me (almost without failure) whenever I requested it.

Hutch started reffing in the early 90’s shortly after giving up playing.

I first met Hutch at the midget provincials in Windsor where a great friendship developed between a bunch of us officials who were starting to officiate around the same time.

Over the years Tom assisted in many minor tournaments and provincials….generally speaking wherever we were going as a group Tom would be one of the guys there.

Tom was RIC in Sarnia for a few years which assisted in developing and improving the organization’s officials.

Hutch always booked off the weekend when the Owen Sound Harry Kazarian tournament was on to come and assist us in the Sound. It did not matter what level of lacrosse he was asked to officiate he gladly assisted in any way he could.

As a bonus he generally officiated the junior or senior game that is the Saturday &/or Sunday game of the tournament weekend. As the officials who attend the Harry Kazarian tournament are aware they all stay at either my house or at that of Mark & Lynne Kazarian and we gather both Friday and Saturday evenings for food, beverage and fellowship along with the tournament organizing committee. Since Tom was a fixture at the tournament he has a great many friends in Owen Sound.

I have held what is called the Men in Black weekend every September at Sauble Beach to celebrate the camaraderie of reffing. Tom had attended 9 of the 10 held to date. The 11th will not be the same without Hutch there.

Tom was chosen in 2003 to be the representative for Ontario at the Founders Cup. Unfortunately he also found out that year that he had cancer. The treatments left him too weak to officiate at the level required and he had to decline.

In 2005 he was again selected to go to Saskatoon to ref in the Founders. He doubled as assistant RIC along with Brent McCauley. Unfortunately this prevented him from being eligible to referee in the Gold medal game that he probably deserved.

In 2006 Tom was selected as co RIC of the Founders with me and ironically (as it has turned out) this competition was also in Windsor.

The politics and geography of lacrosse in Ontario prevented Tom from receiving the assignments that (in my humble opinion) he deserved. The teams complain when the referees are sent from too far a distance (the cost of mileage creates a problem) and unfortunately Sarnia is at the western edge of the province.

Tom’s vocation was in social work and he was a counselor for the Children’s Aid Society. Tom never discussed his work but I discovered (by reading through the lines) that his work was extremely draining. He had to go into situations that we would be appalled to know existed. He dealt with confrontation at work on almost a daily basis. I guess that is why no matter what the situation on the floor Tom kept his cool.

Tom’s goal in moving back to Sarnia in the late 90’s was to become a customs agent. He was close to achieving this in the early days of his returning to Sarnia, but a hiring freeze of some sort prevented him from getting his desired job at that time.

About a month ago I received an email from Hutch commenting that he had received word that he would get a job as a customs agent. He was quite happy. Two weeks ago at our referee’s clinic, Tom & I shared a room and he was looking forward to when he would be sent to Montreal for 9 weeks training.

Tom was well enough thought of by his fellow officials (and I will not say which ones) but one Sunday of our clinic many years ago Tom did not show up for the exam. Someone (thinking that Tom had slept in) scooped an extra copy of an exam and did it for him. As it turned out Tom had been called away to a family emergency. The powers that be (instructors and testers) were very irate that someone had done an exam for Tom, but I feel that it showed the respect and loyalty that the guys had for Tom.

Ron I wish I had more time available to add to this, but hopefully it will give your readers a little more understanding of who Hutch was.

I hope that you can prepare some sort of Bio for the readers from this information.

Yours in lacrosse,

Terry



    
This message has been edited by olaf_admin from IP address 70.49.22.89 on Mar 20, 2007 4:50 PM

Posted on Mar 20, 2007, 4:19 PM
from IP address 70.49.22.89

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  1. Funeral Arrangements. Ron Pallister, Mar 20, 2007, 5:02 PM

2011 PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONS
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