Behind the Scenes at Minnesota State Boys' Hockey Tournaments

For the Boy’s State Hockey Tournament, there are three main components to the scorer’s table: the timer, announcer and the scorer. There are also two penalty box guards as well as a floor director for the television broadcast. Here is a look at the responsibilities of each of these during the four days of the state tournament.

Timer – Mark Wahman has been the timer for the boy’s state tournament since 1996. Prior to that, beginning in 1976 , Robert “Bud” Bodin, was the timer (when the tournament moved from the Met Center to the St. Paul Civic Center). Mark begins each tournament day by making sure the clock is functional and he will follow an exact script, established by the MSHSL, as to how much time to put on the clock for warm-ups, pre-game announcements, etc. so it will coordinate with the television broadcast. For each game he will insert the abbreviated letters for the teams that goes up on the scoreboard. During the game, as with any timer, he will carefully start and stop the clock. During the noisier games of the tournament, it is a difficult task to be able to hear the referee’s whistle blow to stop play (and the clock). Besides putting the penalty time and the guilty player’s number on the scoreboard, he will also add a goal when scored. However, he can’t do this until the goal has been authorized by the scorer and replay booth.

Public Address – This job is shared by two consummate professionals with the microphone, Dave Wright and Jim Carroll. Dave has been announcing the boys’ hockey tournaments since 1996. Jim is the “young buck” of the group, having worked tournaments since 2009. Prior to them, most long-time tournament goers will remember the likes of Dick Stanford and Bob Reid handling the announcing duties. As you can imagine, they must complete a pre-game list of things to do prior to the puck being dropped. They meet with each team to acquire the starting line-ups, go over pronunciations of names and see if there are roster changes. The League provides each of them with announcements that are made before the game and during time-outs. They will introduce cheerleaders (if applicable for a team) as well as the pre-game introduction of players. They carefully plan when to announce a goal or a penalty, as to not conflict with a band playing. After each period, they will summarize the pertinent items from that period (goal and assists, team penalty time and shots on goal). Dave handles the Class A games while Jim does all of the Class AA games.

Official Scorer – You probably didn’t know but there have been only three official scorers in the history of the hockey tournament. Bill Fitzharris from St. Paul did it from 1945-1961. He died the week prior to the 1962 tournament and Beno Ranwieller assumed his duties as scorer until his death in 1978. Since 1979, John Vosejpka has been the scorer for the boys’ tournaments. The position of official scorer has changed drastically over the years. In the early years, the official would come over to the scorer’s table and report who had the goal and any assists. The official would have asked the goal scorer who might have passed the puck to him prior to the goal being scored. Obviously, this was not the most accurate way of crediting the correct goal scorer and those that should receive an assist. But this is how is was done over the years at both the tournament and at any regular season game. Occasionally, a player that was slighted from receiving an assist would go to the scorer to bring it to his attention. A change in scoring could only be made if the referee approved the change. Flash forward to the present time. With the inception of replay, it is much more accurate to let the guys in the replay booth give the correct goal scorer and any assists. Sometimes, it takes a while to determine this (this is the reason that the goal is sometimes not announced right away). You will also note that, until the replay booth indicates the goal is good, the timer can’t put the goal up on the scoreboard nor can the official drop the puck at center ice. If you watch after each goal, the scorer will either give the thumbs up to the official at center ice or call him over to the scorer’s table to converse with the replay booth. The shots on goal were always kept by the scorer at center ice. Although it sounds like a good idea, the constant players and officials crossing in front of the scorer’s table during the game does not allow for an accurate tally on shots so that responsibility is also handled upstairs.

Penalty Box Guards – Most of the guys that handle this task are former hockey officials. They not only make sure that the correct players go to their designated penalty box but also release them when it is time to do so. They also keep a bucket of cold pucks on hand so that when one leaves the playing arena, they are quick to toss another one to the referee or linesmen.

Television Floor Director – Steve Hurt is the person that is normally standing in the scorer’s area. He is in constant contact with other television personnel to ensure that the television broadcast is not delayed in any way. He works with the p.a. person to coordinate announcements and other time-sensitive responsibilities. He also is the person that will signal a television time-out (FYI – the first whistle inside of 14, 10 and 6 minutes on the clock warrants this time-out). However, this can never happen during a penalty so it is delayed until the first whistle after the penalty expires.