For over 20 years, Wawota’s Dean Horvath has been the statistician of the Big Six Hockey League.
During that time, franchises have been added or have fallen by the wayside. He has served under three league presidents: Emile Balogh, Rae Wright and Ryan Toms.
Being a hockey statistician is an important job for any league. Any additions or deletions to rosters must be promptly reported to Hockey Saskatchewan. The rules of the league’s constitution must be strictly adhered to. Player suspensions must be reported in a very timely manner and disclosed before the next game is played.
Horvath began his career with a fax machine, before being able to scan the scoresheets to a phone or computer. Technology has vastly improved the speed and quality of reporting.
“As the stats guy, I try to report accurate results as soon as I can,” said Horvath. “But you know, the scoresheets are still filled out by hand and scorekeepers with poor handwriting continue to be a concern.”
In addition to being league statistician, Horvath is a member of the Wawota Flyer team executive. He has been a part of their championship teams of 2004-05, 2014-15 and 2015-16. He is careful to remain totally unbiased, however, with all league issues.
“Like with all sports, COVID-19 was hard on hockey and its fans. Thankfully, those issues appear to be behind us. The league now has 11 teams and most have full rosters. Redvers, Moosomin, Oxbow and Carnduff are having good seasons and are the cream of the crop,” said Horvath.
“The league has several star players that we all should be proud of. The playoffs start soon and there should be some great hockey played in February and March.”
As a statistician, Horvath has been extremely pleased with the new Big Six Hockey League website.
“The new site is so easy to use and transfers information seamlessly from one section to another. I can update scores from my phone as soon as the home team scans me the scoresheet.”
Joining Toms on the executive are vice-president Ryan Thompson of Midale, secretary-treasurer Trina Mayer and referee-in-chiief Kyle Hoium.
The league website is bigsixhockey.com.
“I have been around the Big Six Hockey League for a very long time. I have met a lot of people and have made a lot of friends over the years. Hockey is alive and well in southeast Saskatchewan,” said Horvath.
