Sports organizations in the Eastern Townships mourn the sudden loss of Steve Gosselin
The Eastern Townships’ sports community was rocked over the weekend, as members from hockey, football, and baseball organizations reacted to the sudden loss of local scorekeeper and announcer, Steve Gosselin.
“Steve will be greatly missed, not only as a volunteer, as a work colleague, but also, he was a brother to me and to so many people. We were privileged to share so many wonderful moments with him,” said Robert Legault, public relations officer for the Sherbrooke Expos.
Gosselin, who was in his mid-40s, was discovered in his home by the Sherbrooke Police Service (SPS) on Saturday morning. He had been in isolation for five days after recently receiving a positive COVID-19 test result.
According to Legault, Gosselin spoke to his parents and a friend on Friday evening. When his parents didn’t hear from him the next day, they decided to call the SPS to check up on him. There will be a coroner’s report to determine the exact cause of his death.
Legault told The Record that he met Gosselin more than 30 years ago, working with the Sherbrooke Canadiens, a professional ice hockey team in the area. Legault said that Gosselin wore many hats; he was a scorekeeper, timekeeper, and an announcer.
He eventually became involved with the Expos, the city’s senior amateur baseball team, the Champlain College Lennoxville Cougars football and hockey teams, the Quebec Major
Junior Hockey League’s Sherbrooke Phoenix, and the Pif Classique Softball Tournament.
“He was the kind of guy that would say ‘yes’ and come and get involved in all kinds of events,” said Legault. “He worked football games, hockey games, lacrosse games, softball; he did so many things in these areas.”
He was one of the main announcers at the Amedée Roy Stadium, home of the Expos, he continued. Gosselin started by replacing Legault, the announcer at the time, when he was sick or on vacation. When Legault left for Montreal, Gosselin became the goto announcer.
He was a consummate professional when it came to office officiating. For the past three years, he has been Hockey Estrie’s chief marker, responsible for overseeing and training all of the region’s scorekeepers. Gosselin was part of the organization’s overhaul plans.
“It has been three years now that we’ve made scorekeepers more of a priority, they were always volunteers that we didn’t pay as much attention to, but with Steve we started giving more credibility to the work done by scorekeepers,” said Director General Jasmin Gaudet.
Gaudet added that he was shocked and saddened to hear the news of his death. He had a major influence on the organization’s information system. They don’t work with paper anymore, everything is digitized, and Gosselin had a hand in that process.
The director general said he doesn’t know if Gosselin had any underlying illnesses. He was passionate about sports, Gaudet continued, and for his job as an office official. He will be missed for his perfectionism, calmness, and approachable character.
“We organize a lot of tournaments and Steve was a part of a lot of them here in Sherbrooke, so I knew him from all over,” said Gaudet. “He’s someone I saw frequently throughout the year, we spoke frequently, too.”
Champlain College Athletic Director Sylvain Laflamme said his phone blew up on Saturday once the news started to trickle into the sports community. Gosselin was part of the school’s sports scene for roughly 15 years, announcing and scorekeeping hockey and football games.
“He was somebody that everybody knew [and] that everybody had a chance to meet,” said Laflamme. “He was a friendly person, you know, easygoing and everything, so it’s a huge loss for the community.”
It was a complete shock, nobody wanted to believe it, he explained, and it’s even harder because due to pandemic restrictions they won’t be able to gather in large numbers to celebrate his life. He plans to do something special whenever restrictions are lifted.
“He was just a great person, fun to be around, never complained about anything. He was more than just somebody that worked for us, he was part of the Cougar family because he’s been with us for long,” said Laflamme.