Most common NSOs errors.

[Bishop]

#  penalty trackers that report a fourth minor after the jam has ended
# "  " and the skater has left the track, and the next jam is on

oh yeah...

Those are to be expected unless you have a veteran NSO crew.  Even then it will happen, in part because of referees and outside whiteboard NSOs not dropping off penalties ASAP.  Also, sometimes there may be a lag in the chain from outside ref, outside whiteboard, inside penalty wrangler to penaly tracker.  If you think about it, there are a lot of communication logistics there.  Now that my home crew has gotten some experience, we use two penalty trackers and no inside whiteboard personnel or penalty wranglers.  The trackers have a dry earse marker and update the inside whiteboard directly.  I adopted this arrangement at the suggestion of the trackers.  They felt the logistics were unnecessarily complex.  They've done a fine job so I can't argue.  It also prevents disparity between the penalty tracking sheets and the whiteboard.  I think this arangement has it's limits (e.g. when there are many penalties coming in) but the results have been great so far.

Here's another error that can be very messy: jammer referees dropping off a fourth minor after having sent the skater to the box and forgetting to communicate that the skater has been sent to the box.  Trackers will sometimes not catch and communicate this until after the skater is released from the box.  The information then goes to an inside pack ref who sends the confused skater back to the box.  Messy messy business.  Actually, I believe this was the source of the five minute OTOs I curse about on here every so often.  Jammer refs (especially me), make sure you communicate that you sent your jammer to the penalty box for a fourth minor to your tracker.         

[SeerSin]

I've had problems in several bouts with miscommunication between the penalty timers and skaters that has led to early releases. Not the most common problem, but one that requires a lengthy Official Time Out to remedy. 

[Poobah]

Scorekeepers who think "lost" means "she had lead jammer and then lost it by heading to the penalty box" when it actually means, "she broke the pack first but wasn't called lead." Anytime a scorekeeper checks both LOST and LEAD, it's wrong.

Second pass score box is blank when NP isn't checked. If it wasn't a no pass situation, she was in the second pass when the jam ended. She scored no points in it, so a zero must be recorded.

Scorekeeper doesn't record anything in the jam total box when no points were scored. The same people do this as the last one.

Scorekeeper stops totaling the score on the sheets or never starts. Seriously, don't count on the scoreboard guy to get the points right. CHECK HIS WORK. Better yet, do not give him the points scored in this jam. Give him the total points for the bout. This one gets fun when I realize what they have (not) done at halftime, I total the score up and it doesn't match what the scoreboard says.

One time at a non-WFTDA away bout, I did actually get the stats sheets back afterward, and realized that the other team's scorekeeper was awarding them two points for the first pass of every jam they got lead jammer in.

Another fun one is when you get somewhere and they use improvised penalty codes. Or antiquated sheets that weren't designed for a two-30s bout. One time I went "Oh no, this is outdated- Oh cool! I helped redesign this two years ago because there was bugs in the hidden... oh sorry, yeah, let's just use these newer ones I brought with me."

[Bishop]

Pooboh, some of what you described speaks more to the byzantine stats sheets out there than it does the NSOs themselves.

I noticed too that you mention a "non-WFTDA" bout which I think is an important distinction.  Generally speaking, WFTDA bouts are better organized - probably out of necessity since they have to report that information to the WFTDA.  Conversely, this shouldn't be interpreted as a swipe to some great non-WFTDA teams out there.  However, I have noticed that smaller, newer leagues can struggle with stats sheets.  It's a shame too because this often manifests itself in extended OTOs so these issues can be sorted out.  As I've mentioned before, nothing kills the crowd's excitement like extended OTOs.   

I think it's important to select stats sheets that make sense for the level of play and organzation the hosting league has.  The sheets I designed for my league are essentially a stripped-down version of the ECE 2009 tracking sheets.  Now that my NSO crew has some seasoning, I'm going to try adding detail back in.  This is all related to what FNZebra has pointed out on here a few times - when people are new to something, tell them the least they need to know to do their jobs.  I did this and whipped up those stripped-down tracking sheets.  End result is zero OTOs related to NSO errors or delays. 

[Jessticular Fortitude]

Scorekeepers who think "lost" means "she had lead jammer and then lost it by heading to the penalty box" when it actually means, "she broke the pack first but wasn't called lead." Anytime a scorekeeper checks both LOST and LEAD, it's wrong.

Are you sure about that? I was taught that LOST meant she was lead jammer and then lost that designation- not that she never had it to begin with

I'm going to check on that.

Edit: Well I'll be. You're correct. I did that wrong at SC regionals then. Damn.

[Master Bates]

Scorekeepers who think "lost" means "she had lead jammer and then lost it by heading to the penalty box" when it actually means, "she broke the pack first but wasn't called lead." Anytime a scorekeeper checks both LOST and LEAD, it's wrong.

Are you sure about that? I was taught that LOST meant she was lead jammer and then lost that designation- not that she never had it to begin with

I'm going to check on that.

Edit: Well I'll be. You're correct. I did that wrong at SC regionals then. Damn.

older stats sheets explained this differently in the comments section.

[Dual.CannonZ]

My understanding is it is that you have lost the abilility to become lead jammer, ie the jammer stepped out of bounds before they have entered the engagement zone or committed a penalty and did not re-pass.

Also I marked other in the survey,

Penalty Trackers that don't mark that the player has served time for their forth minor... so the player didn't get ejected when they should have.

Scorekeepers who think "lost" means "she had lead jammer and then lost it by heading to the penalty box" when it actually means, "she broke the pack first but wasn't called lead." Anytime a scorekeeper checks both LOST and LEAD, it's wrong.

Are you sure about that? I was taught that LOST meant she was lead jammer and then lost that designation- not that she never had it to begin with

I'm going to check on that.

Edit: Well I'll be. You're correct. I did that wrong at SC regionals then. Damn.

[mick hawkins]

Seriously, don't count on the scoreboard guy to get the points right. CHECK HIS WORK. Better yet, do not give him the points scored in this jam. Give him the total points for the bout.

oh yeah... agreeing entirely with this

[Taxinator]

In my case, "Other" would be penalty trackers who can't keep up and penalty wranglers who don't know what they're doing. Wrangling is generally a job best left to someone with at least some degree of experience as a skating ref; people aren't trained to follow the game and who do nothing but look at the whiteboards (if they're not staring into space when they should be doing THAT) aren't really maximixing that position.

I agree with DayGlo on this one.

[bronco]

Question:      In your experience, what is the most common error inexperienced NSOs make?

Calling off the jam at the end of the period instead of its natural conclusion    - 1 (4.3%)
   
Total Voters: 23

I have not had a Jam timer end the bout early, but I do get announcers that insist on counting down the final period: Ten, Nine, Eight...

The funny part is that the skaters stop skating, create no-pack situations, and some leave the track and become OOP and NOTT points.  It only takes one attentive jammer to change the game "after" the fans think its over. Until that fourth whistle, its game on!

[Brad Religion]

I cover the "last jam ends at its natural conclusion, not the game clock" situation in EVERY pre-bout meeting I've ever had. If someone else is HR'ing and they don't cover it, I ask about it so that it does.

Every single bout I've reffed at least half the pack stands up and stops skating when the buzzer sounds. *sigh*

[Major Wood]

Turn off the buzzer.....

[FNZebra]

Some hockey rink setups don't allow the buzzer to be turned off. So it's either clock + buzzer or no clock.

[Darkjester]

Or at the 10 second mark you stop the clock..

[elvis refley]

I'm with Poobah. Score tracking jobs for some reason tend to go to the least experienced NSO's. The tracking gets messy in one of a number of ways and leads to the most heinous, crowd confusing timeouts.