A Unique Hockey Life has Prepared Steve O’Rourke to be PWHL Seattle’s First Head Coach

When Steve O’Rourke was introduced as the first head coach of PWHL Seattle this June, he carried with him a hockey résumé unlike anyone else’s in the league. His path has stretched from small-town rinks in British Columbia to minor professional stops in North America and Europe, to coaching experience across a variety of men’s and women’s programs at multiple levels.

O’Rourke grew up in Summerland, BC, a town of about 10,000 people located between Penticton and Kelowna. “It had a small, hometown feel,” O’Rourke said in a recent phone interview with us. “If we went on a vacation, we had to find a key so we could lock the door. I started playing low-AA hockey. Had to beg a couple kids to come out just so we could form a team. I wanted to play at a high level and to do that I had to go away. I went to Notre Dame in Saskatchewan along with my brother, Dan.”

Dan O’Rourke would go on to quite a different hockey life than his younger brother—one as an NHL referee. Now more than two decades into that career, Dan has worked more than 1,500 NHL games and seven Stanley Cup Finals. “Dan was a really tough, physical player. After winding down as a player, he went from fighting to breaking up fights in a year,” Steve recalled with a laugh. Though their careers diverged, their paths have intersected in memorable ways. Steve was in Vancouver for Game 1 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, his brother’s first game in a Final. “I always joke that I’m one of the only fans to be emotional about the referee,” he said.

Steve O’Rourke’s own professional playing career lasted six seasons, with stops in Louisiana and later in Europe. The overseas experience reshaped his perspective. “You’re only at the rink for three hours a day,” he said. “I went to a lot of museums and other things but you can only see so many sights. So I started working on my Masters while I was over there.”

Married young and already a father by then, O'Rourke leaned into education and found a new career path, shifting into coaching at Okanagan Hockey Academy, where his son was playing. From there, he built a steady résumé across minor professional and junior hockey.

O'Rourke’s connection to women’s hockey began more than a decade ago at the Okanagan Academy in Penticton, where he met Gina Kingsbury, now the Toronto Sceptres General Manager. “There were some really good players there, like Hannah Miller, Emily Clark and Micah Zandee-Hart,” O’Rourke recalled. “I was asked to push them and get them prepared. Gina and I connected then and have stayed in touch since.”

That relationship deepened three years ago when Kingsbury invited him to observe Canada’s National Women’s Team. The experience left a lasting impression. “It was amazing to watch Gina in that setting and I knew she was doing something I wanted to be part of,” he said. Attending a Sceptres game with Kingsbury last season following his tenure with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals cemented his desire. “The atmosphere was something special,” O’Rourke said. “There was a purity to it… it was just something I wanted to be part of. Especially the way Gina explained to me what the league was trying to do from the players’ perspective. This league is about growing the game, giving the players the right experience and then the fans have the right experience as well.”

Kingsbury had encouraged O’Rourke to consider putting his name in the hat for a PWHL position back in 2023, and with the league expanding last spring, encouraged him again. “I’m not sure if it was for Vancouver or Seattle or both but I was interested,” O’Rourke recalled. And then Meghan [Turner] got in touch with me, and I was just so excited. Just to talk was great. She is very thoughtful and very intelligent. We sat down in Toronto around the expansion draft, and we connected on how we see the game being played, how we want to connect with the players so they have that good experience. We want them to have fun on the ice. This is still about accountability for the players—they want to be pushed. But it’s about how we ask that of them.”

While PWHL observers are buzzing that expansion teams Seattle and Vancouver have the best rosters in the league, O’Rourke doesn’t want to make any predictions about his team’s results. He can still make a promise though. “What’s going to occur is our process every day,” he said. “People have expectations of what this team should be. But we have our own expectations: come together and grow as a group.”

Seattle may boast big-name players such as Hilary Knight, Alex Carpenter and Cayla Barnes, to name a few, O’Rourke is quick to point out that they have not skated together at this level. “We have three new goalies,” O’Rourke said. “There will be six defenders that have never played together in that setting. Twelve forwards that have never played together in that setting. Some of them have played together a little on other teams, national settings, camps, sure. But we don’t know what this is going to look like.

“No one is going to hand us anything,” he added. “If we think we’re superior, we’re in trouble. The other coaches in this league are great coaches. We’re going to be in for a battle from drop of the puck in Game 1 to the end of Game 30.”

For O’Rourke, who will be working not too far from his home base in British Columbia, the move feels natural. He spends his free time mountain biking. He played in what is now Climate Pledge Arena when it was Key Arena against the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL and is familiar with all the other pro sports teams in town, so he knows firsthand how much the market values passion and hard work. He told us he cares about “Accountability, communication and caring,” along with “practicing hard every day and playing fast.”

Ultimately, after a career that has zigzagged through so many corners of the game, Seattle represents a convergence of experience and opportunity. O'Rourke's hockey life as a player, teacher, coach and mentor has prepared him for precisely this moment. He’s ready. “I just can't wait to get going and start forming those bonds,” he said.