Randy Fletcher

Randy and I joined the Manotick Curling Club in 1990. It all started when Randy said we needed to get out one night a week together. At the time our daughters Kaitlyn and Sarah were 2 and 1. The next day he came home from work so excited. His good buddy Lou McGuire asked him if we would like to curl mixed with his wife Janet. Randy didn’t know a thing about curling (neither did I) but he signed us up. I said you did what!!!!

So we took a learn to curl clinic and our instructor was … Karol Bilyj. The following year we continued to curl mixed, I joined Tuesday night ladies and Randy joined Monday night men’s. 6, 8, and 10 pm draws. Randy curled his first game against Sid Herwig! Sid taught him that rocks had names if they misbehaved. None of which I can repeat. 

We curled for a few years with Lou and Janet and later with Nick and Carol MacDonald. But after that, Randy loved to mentor new curlers. Every year we would take on a new team. 

When our girls were 6 and 4, we enrolled them in the Little Rock Program under … Karol Bilyj. Sarah is still very much enjoying the sport. At 35, she’s been a club member for 31 years. 

Randy earned his coaching certificate and took over the Little Rock / Bantam / Junior program until Sarah aged out. 

During Sarah’s junior years, Randy was very much involved with the Junior Super Spiel. We would billet teams from Scotland every year. Randy enjoyed meeting the coaches, driving the teams to their games, and showing them the sights of Ottawa. To this day we remain great friends. Recently Sarah travelled to Scotland and reconnected with the girls. They had many ‘Randy’ stories to share. 

Now I’m not sure of the exact year, but Randy also served on the Board of Directors as secretary for 2 years. I seem to recall that I was the one that typed up the minutes. 

As I said earlier, Randy loved to mentor. That’s when he took over the Learn To Curl Program. Watching new curlers advance always made him smile. And I think they loved hearing his non stop jokes and impersonations. Actually we all did. 

Randy lived and breathed curling. He followed all the team stats from around the world. And he especially followed Manotick’s own Jamie Sinclair as she won 3 US national championships. He was there.

In 2020 we attended the Brier in Kingston, the last major curling event before covid hit. Sadly Randy passed during Covid, but his legacy lives on here at the Manotick Curling Club.