Starting Simple With Paper Notes
So my kid joined pee wee hockey this season, and I wanted to actually understand how the team was doing beyond just wins and losses. First thing I did? Sat in the freezing rink bleachers with a crumpled notebook and a chewed-up pencil. Every game, I’d scribble down basic stuff: goals scored, who passed to whom, penalties, and saves. Messy handwriting, coffee stains everywhere – total chaos after three games.
The Lightbulb Moment
One Tuesday night, I was staring at this pile of papers feeling super annoyed. Like, what’s the point if I can’t tell whether Timmy’s defense improved or if we kept losing to the same type of plays? That’s when I remembered some dad mentioning ranking systems online. Didn’t need fancy apps – just a way to see patterns. So I dug out my dusty laptop and opened that old Excel sheet I last used for grocery lists.
Building My Ghetto Ranking System
Here’s where it got fun. I made columns for each player: goals, passes, ice time, plus/minus. Team stuff went on another sheet – wins, losses, goals against, penalty minutes. Then I added simple formulas. Like, I gave points for goals (1) and assists (0.5), subtracted a point for bad penalties. Created a “team performance score” by averaging our goals per game minus opponent goals. Took forever to type in all the past game data, but whatever.
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Some surprises popped up fast. Found out our goalie was facing 20% more shots during power plays – no wonder he looked stressed. Also showed that even when Bobby scored lots, his penalties often cost us goals right after. Didn’t need stats wizard, just stubborn typing. Almost quit though when I realized I’d spelled six player names wrong and had to redo two weeks of entries.
How It Actually Helped
Started sharing printouts with coaches (after clearing my kid’s “friend” was actually “freind”). Highlights? We discovered road games tanked our third-period performance – maybe tired legs? Coaches adjusted lines based on which combos had the best pass-goal ratios. Made playoffs somehow, and I swear seeing those ugly spreadsheets helped us practice smarter. Still don’t know advanced stats, but my paper-to-Excel mess worked.
