You Just Got Voluntold to Run the Scoreboard — Now What?
A survival guide for the parent who showed up to watch their kid play and left with a job.
It always happens the same way.
You're standing by the boards, coffee in hand, watching warmups. A team manager walks up and says something like: "Hey, we don't have anyone on the scoreboard tonight — do you think you could handle it?"
Before you can answer, they're handing you a walkie-talkie, pointing at a door you've never noticed, and saying "the laptop should be up there already." Then they're gone.
You're now in charge of game presentation. You don't know what any of the buttons do. The game starts in six minutes.
Welcome to the booth.
First: breathe
This happens constantly. At every rink, every weekend, across every level of youth and amateur hockey. The person running game ops is almost never a trained audio engineer or a broadcast professional. It's a parent, a team manager, a sibling, or a random volunteer who was standing in the wrong place at the right time.
Nobody expects perfection. The ref doesn't care if the music is slightly too loud. The coaches aren't judging your song selection. The parents in the stands are mostly just glad someone is up there at all.
Your job tonight is simple: make the building not silent, mark the goals, and don't play anything inappropriate. That's it. Everything beyond that is bonus points.
The first five minutes
You just walked into the booth (or behind the glass, or wherever the controls are). Here's what to do right now:
Find the audio output. There's either a laptop, a tablet, or a phone connected to the rink's PA system. Figure out what it is and confirm it's actually producing sound. Play something — anything — quietly and check that audio is coming through the speakers. If nothing plays, check the aux cable, the Bluetooth connection, and the PA system's power. Most problems are a loose cable or a muted channel.
Find the volume control. There are usually two: the device volume and the PA/mixer volume. Set the device to about 75% and use the PA or mixer to control overall level. If you can only control one, that's fine — just find it.
Find the goal horn. This is your most important job. Locate whatever file, button, or app triggers the goal horn. If there's a dedicated soundboard app, find the horn button. If it's just files on a laptop, open the horn file and make sure you can play it fast. Test it once at low volume so you know it works.
Start playing music. Warmups are already happening and the rink is probably silent. Open whatever music is available — a playlist, a folder of MP3s, a streaming app — and start playing something. Doesn't matter what. Uptempo, moderate volume. You just broke the silence and that alone makes a difference.
You're now running game presentation. That took three minutes.
During the game: what matters and what doesn't
What matters
Music between whistles. When play stops, start music within a few seconds. When play resumes, fade it out or stop it. That's the rhythm of the entire game. Stoppage → music on. Face-off → music off. You'll get a feel for the timing quickly.
Goal horn when the home team scores. Fire it fast. The instant the puck goes in, hit the horn. Don't wait for the ref to signal — react to what you saw. If it gets waved off, that's fine. A premature horn is forgivable. A missing horn is not.
Keeping the volume reasonable. Music should be background energy, not a wall of sound. If parents are shouting over it to have a conversation, it's too loud. If you can't hear it from the stands, it's too quiet. Find the middle.
What doesn't matter
Perfect song selection. Nobody is judging your taste in music tonight. Play what's available. If it's uptempo and clean, it works.
Sound effects. If you have them, great. If you don't, nobody will miss them tonight. Focus on music and the goal horn.
Announcements. If you feel comfortable doing PA announcements ("Goal scored by number 17..."), go for it. If you don't, skip them entirely. A goal horn without an announcement is still a celebration. An awkward announcement makes everyone uncomfortable.
Anything fancy. Crossfades, organ riffs, player walk-up songs, intermission entertainment — none of this matters right now. That's advanced mode. You're in survival mode and that's completely fine.
The things that can actually go wrong
Most of the things you're worried about won't happen. Here are the ones that might, and what to do:
The audio cuts out mid-game. Check the cable. Check Bluetooth. Check the device — did it go to sleep? Most audio dropouts are a cable that got bumped or a device that locked itself. Reconnect and move on. Nobody will remember a 30-second gap.
You play music during live play. It happens. The ref drops the puck and your track is still going. Just stop it quickly. Smile. Nobody's mad.
You play something with explicit lyrics. Kill it immediately and switch to the next track. Apologize if the PA was loud enough for people to hear it clearly. Then move on. It happens to everyone at least once — which is why instrumental tracks and known-clean songs are always the safer bet.
You can't figure out the equipment. Ask for help. The rink staff, another parent, the team manager — someone in the building has run this setup before. There's no shame in asking. Better to get a two-minute walkthrough than to sit in silence for three periods.
The away team scores and you accidentally fire the horn. Laugh it off. The away team's parents will give you a look. The home team's parents will think it's funny. It's not a big deal.
Intermissions
The two intermission breaks are actually the easiest part of the night. The ice is being cleaned, nobody's playing, and your only job is to keep music going at a comfortable volume.
This is also when you can regroup. Check your setup. Make sure the goal horn is still loaded and ready. Preview the next few songs in the queue. Take a sip of the coffee you abandoned forty minutes ago.
If anyone asks you to make an announcement (raffle, snack bar, upcoming events), intermission is the time. Keep it short and clear. "Just a reminder, the snack bar closes after the second intermission" is all anyone needs.
After the game
The final buzzer sounds. Play some music through the handshake line. Once teams are off the ice, you can fade out and you're done.
That's it. You ran a game.
Here's what usually happens next: someone on the team says "hey, you did great up there — any chance you could do it again next week?" And just like that, you're the regular game ops person.
If you're doing it again
If tonight turned into a recurring job — congratulations, you're now part of the small, unsung group of people who make hockey games feel like hockey games. A few things that'll make next time easier:
Build a playlist in advance. Twenty to thirty tracks you know are clean, uptempo, and varied. Load them on the device before you get to the rink. Never rely on streaming at a rink.
Get a reliable goal horn sound. Find one you like, download it, and have it ready to trigger instantly. The goal horn is the single most impactful thing you do all game.
Learn the roster. If you want to start doing goal announcements, having a printed roster with jersey numbers is all you need. "Goal scored by number 12, Ryan Mitchell" takes ten seconds and makes the kid's entire night.
Ask the rink what equipment is available. Some rinks have full PA setups with mixer boards. Some have a Bluetooth speaker zip-tied to a rafter. Knowing what you're working with before game day eliminates most of the stress.
Talk to other people who do this. Every rink has at least one person who's been running game ops for years. They know the quirks of the PA system, the volume levels that work, and where the aux cable disappears to between games. Buy them a coffee and ask questions.
The part nobody tells you
Running game presentation looks like a chore from the outside. From the inside, it's one of the best seats in the house.
You're watching every shift. You're reacting to every play. When a kid scores and your horn fires and the bench goes crazy — you had a hand in that moment. You made it louder, bigger, more memorable than it would have been without you.
Most people in the stands don't know your name. The kids on the ice definitely don't. But the atmosphere they remember from that game? The one that made it feel like more than just another weeknight at the rink?
That was you.
CrowdSurge is built for exactly this situation — a game presentation platform that puts music, goal horns, sound effects, and game tracking into a single tablet interface designed for the person who just got handed the aux cord. Check it out →