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—$7,000 per player, 50-55 games across eight months—not every family can attend. For Summer, an electrical engineer in Henderson, Nevada, this sparked a solution.
"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."
— Summer, Larrison Sports Broadcasting
Six years later, that simple fix evolved into Larrison Sports Broadcasting: professional play-by-play commentary, live scoreboards, and archived YouTube games—all produced solo.
But the challenge isn't just streaming video—it's doing everything at once:
- Videography: Camera positioning and framing
- Play-by-play commentary: Announcing every play in real-time
- Scorekeeping: Maintaining accurate score and game clock
- Stats tracking: Recording goals and assists on paper
- Technical troubleshooting: Managing WiFi, OBS, and stream health
- Post-production: Adding YouTube bookmarks for each goal
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)
Summer started simple: phone, tripod, and Facebook Live.
"I started streaming with no scoreboard at all... I would make sure to call out the score regularly."
— Summer
Limitations included no video downloads and no organized archives.
Phase 2: OBS Studio with Custom Canva Scoreboards (2022-2024)
A dad from Arizona who ran a streaming business sent Summer 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."
— Summer on building custom overlays
The problem: It was too much to manage alone. The quality suffered as complexity increased.
Phase 3: KeepTheScore for Simplified Scorekeeping (2024-Present)
Summer realized play-by-play commentary mattered most—parents listened like radio at work.
"Some people when there's Friday games, there's parents who will put it on at work and they'll just listen to it."
— Summer
Seeing another dad using KeepTheScore, she tested it and found her solution:
"I felt like this could help me keep things simple... it did make it easier for me to have those important things on the stream."
— Summer on discovering KeepTheScore
The Implementation: A One-Woman Production
The Equipment:
Summer 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 hockey scoreboard with team colors and logos
- Sets up OBS Studio overlays with sponsor graphics
- Positions camera at center ice
- Connects WiFi and tests stream
During the game:
- Video: Phone on tripod captures the action
- Commentary: Summer announces every play
- Scorekeeping: Remote helper updates KeepTheScore via shared link
- Stats: Tracks goals and assists on paper
- Troubleshooting: Monitors stream health
After the game:
- Adds YouTube bookmarks for every goal
- Makes video available for 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."
— Summer on delegating scorekeeping
Teamwork at center ice: Summer and fellow streaming parent Larae coordinate their broadcasts, part of the small community of parents who've mastered the art of solo sports streaming
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
Summer's streams connect families across North America—grandparents who can't travel, parents saving money, siblings with conflicts.
"They appreciate it because all their family can watch back in Canada or Ohio or wherever they were."
— Summer
Cost Savings for Families
With tournaments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Utah, Idaho, and California, travel costs add up fast. Families save by sending one parent instead of two.
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. Summer'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, Summer 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."
— Summer
Last year, sponsorships covered all extra costs beyond the base $7,000 dues—additional tournament fees, coach expenses, team meals—and even returned money to parents.
Scale
- 30-35 games streamed per season (of 50-55 total)
- 10-12 tournaments nationwide
The Team Manager Role: Making Hockey Affordable
Summer 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
Summer'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."
— Summer on her engineering approach
This troubleshooting mindset helps her quickly identify whether problems stem from user error, software issues, or connectivity challenges—critical when managing a live broadcast solo.
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," Summer 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.
In the zone: Summer calling play-by-play during a game, balancing commentary, scorekeeping, and technical management—a one-woman broadcast team bringing youth hockey to families everywhere
Key Takeaways
Critical Success Factors
- Start simple and iterate: Begin with phone + Facebook Live, then gradually add complexity only when necessary
- Focus on what matters most: Play-by-play quality trumps flashy graphics—families listen at work like radio
- Delegate scorekeeping: Remote helpers via shared links eliminate multitasking burden during live calls
- Community knowledge sharing: Other parent streamers at tournaments provide invaluable troubleshooting tips
Technical Implementation Insights
- OBS Studio browser source integration for live scoreboards
- Elgato Stream Deck for quick overlay switching
- Personal WiFi hotspot ensures reliable connectivity at rinks
- YouTube bookmarks for goals enable easy highlight reel creation
- Sponsorship overlays generate revenue to offset team costs
A Labor of Love
Despite working full-time and managing the team, Summer built something that connects families across North America, saves parents thousands in travel costs, helps kids create recruiting highlight reels, generates sponsorship revenue for the team, and documents youth hockey memories permanently.
All while working full-time as an electrical engineer and managing a competitive travel hockey team.
Summer'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.
