A lot of people know that I do the public address announcing at local hockey games. But not many have seen, or heard me describe the tiny little both that I sit in. Or what’s done after the hockey game comes to an end.
Twisted Sister is actually okay to play.
Games usually take place on Wednesday, Friday or Saturday evenings or on a Sunday afternoon. There’s the rare occasion where a rescheduled game is played on a Monday. Such as what happened this past season. If the game is on a weeknight, I head down to the arena at 7:00 p.m., and get ready for an 8:00 p.m. start. I’ve got a large amount of gear I take with me, just in case. My camera, so I can have pictures for the paper. My laptop, to keep track of goal scorers, assists, penalties, shots on goal and so on. I also use the laptop to play music, which gets plugged into the arena sound system. You have to be careful when choosing the appropriate music for a hockey game. Ministry is not a good band for hockey music, while GnR, Metallica and Ozzy Osborn are just fine. Especially if you use Crazy Train when the home team comes onto the ice to start the game. Other good options for music are the classic standards. Gary Glitter – Rock ‘n Roll Part II (also known as the Dr. Who theme), anything by Tom Cochrane (especially Big League and Victory Day), anything by Rush (especially Tom Sawyer), anything by the Tragically Hip (especially 50 Mission Cap and My Music @ Work), and Stompin’ Tom Connors the Hockey Song. That last one is almost a necessity. If you don’t have it, something is horribly, horribly wrong with you. A few other staples include Theory of a Nickle Fault (Theory of a Deadman, Nickelback and Default), Blink 182 and any high energy dance mix. ABBA and Queen are definitely out.
This would be so much cooler.
The booth itself is small, while the location is fine. The entire length of the ice gets a decent showing, and everything is seen clearly. There’s even a decent sound system in the booth, but no one really knows the best settings unless you go through trial and error. Sometimes, during the game. There’s a small phone mounted on the wall, which is connected directly to the time keeper’s bench (it’s beige, I wanted it to be red, then I could always answer “The Bat Line” but NOOO! couldn’t have that). Along with the phone and sound system is a small bench to set writing materials and such onto, and a few stools. From time to time I’ll get help with the music, so instead of using my laptop, an iPod gets used. The last piece of equipment is the horn. Just an air horn that sounds out loudly, and gets used for when the players hit the ice or when the home team scores a goal.
See? Scuff marks on the glass.
Taking photos through the plexiglass of the booth is a tad challenging, as you have to find the perfect spot so as not to get a scuff mark from a puck in the middle of the photos. Believe it or not, sometimes a wayward puck will smack the glass outside the booth, and it leaves a nasty rubber mark on the glass. And on rare occasions the shot is by accident. Needless to say, it can often be a challenge to take a photo without some grey blob in the middle of it, usually obscuring a goal or a decent shot. It’s Murphy’s Law as subjected to photography.
My desk... a mess.
Once the game is over, I take all the statistical information I’ve gathered and actually attempt to write a sports report on the game. Lately, it’s usually involved the losing side of things for the home team Ice Hawks. I will admit there have been some times when I’ve found some good things to write, especially from the efforts of individual players. Always when I’m writing the stories and organizing the photos, my desk looks like a complete mess, as I not only have to deal with my desktop iMac but my Acer Aspire laptop as well. On top of that, I have to transfer photos from my camera to my desktop and also from my laptop to my desktop (the laptop makes a handy storage device in a pinch). You’d think that really I’d only have maybe three or four photos to worry about, but anyone worth their salt in photography knows that if you want a decent shot, one decent photo from a sporting event, you will have to sort through at least 250 to 300 photos (more if your only job is to take photos).
That, in a nutshell (a really big nutshell, mind you) is what goes on behind the scenes at a hockey game.
Until next time…
…keep ’em flyin’.
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