[stylist] Making it count

Thu Jul 23 23:26:41 UTC 2015

Shawn, This is imprressive on many levels. When I was in high school, I was
one of two statiticians for the boys' soccor team. There was no way I could
see the numbers on their backs. When hair color was no help, I had tricks
of memorizing the legs and body types of all the cute boys. Sometimes I
would have to concentrate on one player who had done something that needed
recording until he came close enough for identification. At these times, I
might miss something else that was happening. When this failed, as it did
for some such as the identical twins on the team, I had a great partner to
fill me in.
Without all of those adaptations, I do not think it could have been done.
Not by me at least. And hocky uniforms and padding usually hides the
distinctive physical attributes. So, again, impressive.
Oh, and your story was great too.
Eve

 President, National Federation of the Blind Northern Arizona
President, National Federation of the Blind Writers' Division
Committee Chair, Arizona Association of Guide Dog Users
Affiliate Member, National Federation of the Blind Legislative Committee
Affiliate Member, National Federation of the Blind Membership Committee
Member, Slate & Style Editing Team

"You do not need to have vision to see the stars."

On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 1:44 PM, Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter via stylist <
stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Congrats, very cool story.
>
> Bridgit
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jacobson,
> Shawn D via stylist
> Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2015 2:23 PM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List (stylist at nfbnet.org)
> Cc: Jacobson, Shawn D
> Subject: [stylist] Making it count
>
> Writer's group
>
> Below is an article I wrote that will be published in Future Reflections.
> It is about my experiences in college as statistician for our hockey club.
>
> I hope everyone enjoys it.
>
> Shawn
>
> MAKING IT COUNT
> by Shawn Jacobson
>
> When I tell people I'm a statistician, they either get a glassy-eyed look
> on
> their faces or think that my job is something like rocket science. People
> tend to believe we statisticians spend our lives looking at columns of
> numbers and doing calculations in our heads. I suppose that is what my
> vocational rehabilitation counselor thought when she told me that a blind
> person couldn't do such a job. Most people don't think getting out on the
> ice during shooting contests, dodging hockey pucks, or arguing with players
> about who scored a goal are jobs for a blind person, either. Yet I had all
> of those experiences when I got my first taste of practical statistics as
> statistician of my university's hockey club.
>
> It was halftime at an Iowa State University football game when I spoke with
> Coach Murdoch about becoming a statistician. He had met me through student
> government when he had sought student funding for the hockey club, and he
> remembered that I aspired to be a statistician. We started talking about
> hockey and statistics, and he asked me if I would like to be the
> statistician for the team. I learned that one of his former statisticians
> had gotten a job with the Chicago Cubs. Finding employment is something we
> blind folks worry about a lot, and a job in major league baseball sounded
> supremely cool. I decided to give the hockey club a try.
>
> At the time, what I knew about hockey could most charitably be described as
> basic. I knew it was played on ice with a puck. I knew that players tried
> to
> get said puck through the opponent's goal, and I had heard that hockey
> players got into a lot of fights. Beyond that, I was pretty clueless. I
> tried looking up information on hockey statistics in the university
> library,
> but what I found assumed a level of knowledge I didn't have. Oh well, I
> decided, I would do what I could.
>
> My first step was to find the Cyclone Area Community Center, where the
> games
> were played. The center was commonly called The Barn, because it had been a
> dairy barn in its former life. But where was The Barn? It was time for me
> to
> do some exploring.
>
> I spent a beautiful autumn afternoon asking questions and generally
> wandering around. Finally I found a suitably barn-like structure on the
> south side of campus. When I opened the doors and looked inside, I saw a
> skating rink and bleachers. This must be the place, I thought. At least the
> walk, about a mile from my dorm room, wasn't beyond reason.
>
> Next I needed to figure out which of the statistics I was going to keep. In
> class we were always handed nice, neat tables of numbers (spreadsheets,
> though we didn't use that term in those days) upon which to employ the
> tools
> of the trade. At hockey games, however, I would be in charge of actually
> collecting the numbers. I placed ads in the student newspaper offering free
> admission to anyone who would volunteer to assist me. These ads drew little
> interest; Ames, Iowa, was not a hockey hotbed. I would need to write down
> the numbers myself.
>
> First I tried to keep track of line changes, noting who was on the ice at
> any given time. To do so I got behind the bench and looked at the numbers
> of
> the players as they got out onto the rink. As I was moving behind the
> bench,
> trying to keep my count, I heard a buzzing sound that reminded me of the
> time I was stung by a hornet.
>
> "Watch out!" one of the players shouted. A puck flying at the speed of a
> car
> on the interstate had just missed my head by about three inches. I realized
> that the shields around hockey rinks are there for a reason. It was time
> for
> me to find something else to track.
>
> Next I tried recording who won face-offs. I wore glasses that gave me
> pretty
> good vision in a really narrow range. I needed to watch something that
> would
> keep still until I found it, and the puck was pretty still before a
> face-off. I figured that whoever won the face-off would eventually start
> moving down the ice toward the other guy's goal. Even if the rest of our
> statistical efforts were incomplete, we always had information about
> face-offs. The idea was that even if I was wrong about who won the draw, I
> could at least provide the coach with useful information about the game.
>
> This job began a relationship with data collection issues that has been a
> large part of my working life ever since. Knowing what information I would
> keep track of, I settled into a routine. I would go to the games and get a
> cup of hot cider (you wanted something warm in a building that featured an
> ice rink!) Then I would head to my spot atop the bleachers at center ice.
> From this vantage point, I was able to watch some good hockey, though the
> team's performance was uneven. Coach Murdoch had moved the team out of a
> conference with a bunch of Illinois schools to seek stiffer competition. So
> the team played a variety of opponents, including other colleges, Canadian
> junior hockey teams, and local hockey clubs. There were many games where we
> won by ten goals, and a few that we lost by that much. In short, the team
> had to play opponents at several skill levels to get through the season.
>
> At the end of periods, I would take my sheet with face-off numbers down to
> the locker room and hand it to the coach. I don't remember a lot about the
> locker room except that it was hot, damp, and musty. Hockey players jammed
> together on benches listening to the coach as he told them what they had
> done wrong and what they needed to work on. Once I handed over my sheet, I
> would leave the room and head back to my seat as the Zamboni smoothed out
> the ice for the next period.
>
> One night I actually got out on the ice. My name was drawn for a contest
> where I could win a prize if I could shoot a puck from the blue line into
> the goal. I went down to the rink and stepped onto the ice. Haltingly, I
> moved to the blue line over a surface I had spent many an Iowa winter doing
> my best to avoid. At the blue line I grasped the unfamiliar stick, took a
> menacing swipe at the puck, and missed. At this point, and on my next miss,
> I knew the crowd was doing something, but I was too preoccupied with
> keeping
> my balance to pay much attention to the noise coming from the stands. Then,
> on my final attempt, I managed to dribble the puck toward the goal, but it
> did not get anywhere close. I left the ice embarrassed, but knowing I had
> given it a try.
>
> The other part of my job was to keep a running total of goals scored,
> assists, and penalty minutes for the team and players. I would get the
> official score sheet from the coach and update the totals from before the
> game. For this work, I was able to use my CCTV system to read the reports
> on
> the game.
>
> The task of keeping scoring totals seemed straightforward, but even this
> got
> me into an argument. On the way home from a game, the player who had given
> me a ride (by now the weather was too cold for a joyful walking experience)
> told me that the scorer had given the goal to the wrong person. He let me
> know that he, and not his teammate, had scored the goal. I brought this up
> with the coach the next day. He told me that the scorer's decision had to
> stand.
>
> The two years I spent keeping hockey statistics taught me a valuable lesson
> that I have carried into my work life--which is very satisfying, even
> though
> it isn't as cool as being a baseball statistician. I learned that numbers
> are about something. Just as every goal is scored by a hockey player, every
> number I track in my job is about a person. Just as every statistics sheet
> I
> looked at told the story of a hockey game, so every analysis I do in my job
> tells a narrative about the human condition. As in hockey, my work with the
> government has been about making it count.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site
> http://writers.nfb.org/
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> stylist:
>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/bkpollpeter%40gmail.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site
> http://writers.nfb.org/
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> stylist:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/3rdeyeonly%40gmail.com
>