Modeling the Organization of a Hockey Tournament (UMAP)

Before this decade, interest in ice hockey moved at glacier speed from Canada and across the United States. Now professional leagues have expanded into regions of the United States in which natural ice is rarely seen, such as the Louisiana Ice Gators, and interest by girls and women has increased at all levels. The first women's ice hockey gold medal went to the United States at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. The Seattle Wings Women's Ice Hockey team began in the summer of 1990 so that women could play, practice, and compete with other women. Over the next three years, more than 50 women turned out to play on the only all-woman team in the city, bringing a range of skills and team-sport experience. To attract competition to Seattle from Oregon and from British Columbia, Canada, an annual weekend tournament was begun in April 1992. In this paper, the jobs involved in organizing the tournament are outlined, divided into tasks and a mathematical model of scheduling and planning is examined to divide the work fairly evenly among the committee members.

Table of Contents:

INTRODUCTION

JOBS AND TASKS

ASSUMPTIONS
Committee Members
How Tasks Are Assigned

ORDER-REQUIREMENT DIGRAPH

CRITICAL PATH ANALYSIS

SCHEDULING
Criteria
Algorithms
Priority List By Importance
Critical-Path Priority List
Priority List by Length
Decreasing Time Distribution List
Six Members
Sharing Tasks

CONCLUSION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

APPENDIX: JOB AND TASK LIST

REFERENCES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR