The Challenge: Keeping Family Connected to Youth Hockey Across the Country
A hockey mom's streaming station at center ice—one person managing video, play-by-play commentary, and scorekeeping for families watching across North America
When your kids play competitive travel hockey—with a season costing $7,000 per player, tournaments across the United States from Boston to Denver, and 50-55 games spread over eight months—not every family member can attend every game. For Sarah, an electrical engineer in the Southwest, this reality hit close to home.
"I would stream the games for my parents because they couldn't make it to all the games. My mom has Parkinson's, so she didn't always feel well, so I'm like, 'Oh, I'll stream them and that way you can watch them from home.'"
That simple solution for her parents six years ago has evolved into a full YouTube channel with professional play-by-play commentary, live scoreboards, sponsor overlays, and archived games with timestamped bookmarks. All produced solo by Sarah while her two kids (now 15 and 16) play competitive travel hockey.
But the challenge isn't just streaming video—it's doing everything at once:
- Videography: Positioning the camera, framing shots, managing equipment
- Play-by-play commentary: Announcing every play, goal, penalty, and player name in real-time
- Scorekeeping: Maintaining accurate score, game clock, period, and power play status
- Stats tracking: Recording who scored, who assisted, shots on goal (on paper)
- Technical troubleshooting: Managing WiFi connectivity, OBS Studio, overlays, and stream health
- Post-production: Adding YouTube bookmarks to each goal after every game
"It takes a lot of multitasking to do all this stuff."
The biggest constraint? She only has two hands.
The Evolution: From Facebook Live to Professional Broadcast
Phase 1: Facebook Live with No Scoreboard (2018-2021)
Sarah started with the simplest possible setup: her phone, a tripod, and Facebook Live.
"I started streaming with no scoreboard at all... I would make sure to call out the score regularly, the time regularly, so that people knew, but visually, if you were looking at it, it was very hard."
The limitations: couldn't download videos initially, had to create new Facebook groups every season, and no organized archive for recruiting highlight reels.
Phase 2: OBS Studio with Custom Canva Scoreboards (2022-2024)
A dad from Arizona who ran a streaming business sent Sarah his entire setup documentation, introducing her to OBS Studio and YouTube streaming.
She upgraded her equipment: Microsoft Surface laptop, Elgato Stream Deck (programmable keypad), and custom scoreboards built in Canva.
"I tried to model it after actual broadcasts of NHL games... I programmed buttons for each player on my son's team so their names would flash when they scored."
The problem: It was too much to manage alone.
"The quality of the broadcast goes down the more things I add."
Phase 3: KeepTheScore for Simplified Scorekeeping (2024-Present)
Sarah realized the play-by-play commentary was the most important thing—that's what people were actually listening to, especially parents who'd stream games at work like it was radio.
"The accuracy of the call of the game, because that's what people are listening to. Some people when there's Friday games, there's parents who will put it on at work and they'll just listen to it because it's like the radio."
She needed to simplify everything that wasn't the commentary. That's when she saw another hockey dad's stream using KeepTheScore.
"I saw his stream online... and then I watched him in action because actually my two sons' teams last year had a lot of conflicts in schedule... There's another dad that thankfully does it. So he took over that team."
Sarah tested KeepTheScore first at home, then in a scrimmage game before committing to using it for regular season games. The transition worked:
"I felt like this could help me keep things simple like I needed to because doing the OBS Studio side of scoreboard was getting complicated. And so it did make it easier for me to have those important things on the stream."
The Implementation: A One-Woman Production
The Equipment:
Sarah travels to tournaments with a compact setup: Microsoft Surface running OBS Studio, phone camera, Elgato Stream Deck, personal WiFi hotspot, and a pop-up tray to hold everything.
The Process:
Before each game:
- Customizes KeepTheScore scoreboard with team colors and logos
- Sets up OBS Studio overlays with tournament standings and sponsor graphics
- Positions camera at center ice (where all streamers congregate)
- Connects WiFi puck and tests stream connection
During the game:
- Video: Phone on tripod captures the action
- Commentary: Sarah announces every play, goal, penalty, player movement
- Scorekeeping: Another parent (remote helper) updates the KeepTheScore via shared link, or Sarah does it herself if no helper available
- Stats: Tracks goals and assists on paper for intermission recaps
- Troubleshooting: Monitors stream health, adjusts as needed
After the game:
- Reviews the YouTube video
- Adds bookmarks for every goal so kids can jump directly to their highlights
- Makes the video available for college recruiting highlight reels
The reality of solo streaming: laptop, phone, Stream Deck, stats sheets, and tangled cables—everything needed to run a professional broadcast from a rink-side tray table
The Helper System:
"I actually send the link to another parent on my team and I have her run the scoreboard clock and score for me to help. Like I said, anything I can do less of to make the call more accurate is better."
Remote scorekeeping in action: a parent updates the live scoreboard from the bleachers using just their phone and a shared link—making solo streaming possible
The remote helper can control the KeepTheScore from anywhere—sitting in the stands, at home, or even in another state. They just need the link and a phone.
The Results: Families Watching from Across North America
Geographic Reach
Travel hockey families are distributed across the United States and Canada. Sarah's streams connect:
- Grandparents who can't travel (like her mom with Parkinson's)
- Extended family in other states
- Parents who stayed home to save money
- Siblings who had conflicts with other activities
"They appreciate it because all their family can watch back in Canada or Ohio or wherever they were."
Cost Savings for Families
With tournaments in Boston, Kalamazoo, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Utah, Idaho, and California, travel costs add up fast:
- Flights for two parents
- Hotel rooms
- Rental cars
- Meals
- Time off work
"In order to allow parents also to help with the savings, if they know I'm streaming, they may only send one parent then and they'll save on a plane ticket and food and everything, travel costs for at least one person if they know I'm streaming."
For a family attending 10-12 tournaments per season, saving one plane ticket per tournament could mean $3,000-5,000 in savings—nearly offsetting the $7,000 season dues.
Recruiting Tool
As kids get older, archived games become recruiting assets. Players create accounts on platforms like NCSA where they can link to YouTube videos. Sarah's bookmarked goals make it easy for kids to find and clip their best plays for college coaches and junior teams.
Business Model: Sponsorships Offset Team Costs
As team manager, Sarah handles the team's finances. The streaming operation became a sponsorship platform:
"We have sponsors now with my son's team the last couple of years. So we use that as a platform to be able to sell sponsorships for the team, that we'll advertise them on the live streams of the games."
Last year, sponsorships covered all extra costs beyond the base $7,000 dues:
- Additional tournament fees
- Coach expenses
- Team meals
- Team events
"Last year we didn't have to do really any fundraising because we got sponsorships for the whole season, actually ended up giving parents money back at the end of the season."
Scale
- 50-55 games per season (per team)
- Streams about 30-35 games (two-thirds of season; can't stream proprietary NAPHL League and national tournament games)
- 10-12 tournaments/events per season across the United States
The Team Manager Role: Making Hockey Affordable
Sarah isn't just the streamer—she's the team manager handling $7,000 per player season dues, additional tournament costs, coaches' expenses, and fundraising. The streaming operation gives the team a valuable asset to offer sponsors: visibility on live broadcasts and archived YouTube videos.
The Engineering Mindset: Troubleshooting and Optimization
Sarah's background as an electrical engineer shapes her approach:
"I feel like being an engineer kind of helps me because I like to know how things work and understand how things work. So I know if it's operator error on my part, why something's not working, or if it's something outside of me that's not working so that I can fix it."
When issues arise with KeepTheScore:
- Clock sync problems: "She would stop the clock and it would keep running"
- Power play timer issues: "The power play clock does not count at the same rate as the game clock"
- Mobile interface challenges: "The buttons are either too small or it takes up too much space"
She learns through YouTube tutorials, experiments with different setups, and asks other streamers about their configurations.
The Streaming Community
At every tournament, there's a small community of parents streaming games. "We all congregate in the middle of the ice, right in about the same spot," Sarah notes. These parents share knowledge about software, configurations, and troubleshooting—an informal network solving the same problem: how to broadcast youth hockey professionally while doing everything solo.
Looking Forward: Growth and Simplification
High School Hockey League
Sarah was recently asked to do "Game of the Week" broadcasts for a new high school hockey league in her area:
"One of the people that are helping in this effort was my son's coach and he knows I do the streaming, so he asked me and another guy in town who streams if we would like to do Game of the Weeks in order to get this out even further into the community here to branch out and grow the game of hockey."
She said yes, though she declined to add player interviews ("that's a lot").
Potential Paid Streaming
"There have been teams in the past that actually paid me to stream their games, so I don't know, if my kids leave town, that may happen for some younger teams that come up."
Desired Improvements
Sarah's wish list for KeepTheScore:
Clock Reliability:
- Fix the sync issues between browsers
- Make power play timer count at same rate as game clock
- Or allow power play to be a simple on/off toggle without a timer
Mobile Interface:
- Bigger buttons that fill the screen
- No scrolling required
- Easier to see everything at a glance
Stream Deck Integration:
- Control scores, clock, power play directly from Stream Deck
- Eliminate need to toggle between devices during game
Shots on Goal:
- Could track it if the mobile interface had room to display everything on one screen
Key Takeaways
For youth sports parents:
- Start simple (phone + Facebook Live)
- Focus on play-by-play quality over flashy graphics
- Share scoreboard control with remote helpers
- Ask other streamers about their setups
For scoreboard solutions:
- Simplicity is critical for solo operators
- Mobile interface must be phone-controllable
- Clock reliability is non-negotiable for hockey
- Team colors and logos show professionalism
For travel sports teams:
- Streaming generates sponsorship revenue
- Parents save thousands when only one travels
- Archived games help with recruiting (NCSA, YouTube)
- Professional broadcasts build team brand
Technical setup:
- OBS Studio browser source for scoreboard
- Elgato Stream Deck for overlays
- Shared KeepTheScore link for remote helpers
- Personal WiFi hotspot for reliability
A Labor of Love
When asked if she enjoys doing this and would continue, Sarah's answer is clear:
"Yeah, I enjoy doing it."
But she's also realistic about the constraints:
"I still work and team manager and my kids are here, I probably will try to keep things more to a minimum so it doesn't fill up all of my time."
Her kids used to tease her:
"My kids used to harass me about how dry I was in the beginning."
Now it's her brand. She's built something valuable that:
- Connects families across North America
- Saves parents thousands in travel costs
- Helps kids create recruiting highlight reels
- Generates sponsorship revenue for the team
- Documents youth hockey memories permanently
All while working full-time as an electrical engineer and managing a competitive travel hockey team.
Sarah's operation proves that with the right mindset, the right tools, and a willingness to iterate and improve, one person can create broadcast-quality sports streaming that serves an entire community.
Ready to add professional scoreboards to your sports streams? Get started with KeepTheScore for free and bring live scoring to your broadcasts.
