A former standout hockey player at Mount Saint Charles Academy, Amanda Tassoni went on to play four years of club hockey at the University of Rhode Island. She went on to coach at the high school level before deciding to pursue a career as an on-ice official. In 2021, she became one of the first women to officiate a game in the American Hockey League, the second-highest level of men’s professional hockey in North America.
In February, Tassoni was fortunate enough to be one of 11 officials who called women’s hockey games at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. She talked about her experience with Ocean State Media’s morning host, Luis Hernandez.
On how she got into officiating
Amanda Tassoni: My older brother had been officiating for a long time, and also I had a coach at Mount St. Charles whose significant other was an official. I was connected to the game in that aspect, and so I figured I’d try it out.
I also did coach. I coached at Smithfield High School and at Mount St. Charles for quite some time; probably the better part of nine years, I think, after I was done playing. I was doing both simultaneously.
My officiating career started to take off at the Division 1 college level and after I went to USA hockey camps. It got so busy that I couldn’t maintain doing both anymore, and I knew that I had a shot at this where we’re sitting today, possibly being a part of the Olympics. So I stepped down from coaching and I decided to pursue the officiating side of it.
On what it was like to officiate at the Winter Olympics
Tassoni: It’s a really, really cool feeling when you’ve worked so hard for so many years and you finally get that phone call to say you’re going. I would assume it’s not quite as amazing as it is for the players. They dedicate their life to this, but it really is something that, on the officiating side, we work just as hard as they do to get there. It’s the ability to feel that achievement finally, for something you’ve set forth so long ago.
On the Olympic experience
Tassoni: Getting to be a part of that Olympic magic, as you would say, was really, really neat. Being in a building for a speed skating event where you got to see an athlete win gold – actually from the US in that event – was really, really cool to be a part of. Also, just walking around the city and seeing how impressive they were with giving the Olympics their show while they were there.
Outside of that, seeing how many people like actors, actresses, previous Olympians that are retired or professional athletes, walking around in the audience in the stands. One of my U.S. games that I was on standby, J.D. Vance walked in and was sitting one section over with his family. It was so surreal and so different than what we’re ever used to when being in an ice rink. It’s just, it’s something that you’re not quite prepared for when you go into it.
On officiating men’s professional hockey in North America
Tassoni: The men in the American Hockey League have been incredibly supportive and respectful of us. They fully understand that when we started there was also going to be this transition period where we were learning their standards and their ways of the game because it is different from… the women’s game. The skating lanes are different. Obviously the rules and the standards are a little bit different, and I think they acknowledged that they’ve been fully respectful and supportive of us.
Obviously they’ll chirp us sometimes in the same way they would chirp them in. And I think for us that’s that level of respect to know that we belong because they treat us the exact same way as they do any of the male officials that are on the ice.
On how officiating hockey has changed her view of the sport
Tassoni: I would say that if I had officiated when I was playing, I would’ve been a significantly better player because of the way that you see the game as an official. You’re taught to see the bigger picture of the ice, to see plays before they happen, to know the rules and acknowledge the differences between what’s legal and what’s not. When you’re playing, you never learn to see the ice like that except for goalies. Goalies do a really great job at seeing the big picture of the ice and goalies make great officials.
