When a buggy shot-tracking app nearly ruined my son's hockey tournament, I decided to build a better one. With AI doing most of the heavy lifting, I went from idea to working web app in just two hours.
Last week, we were in Boston for my son's travel hockey tournament. Being from Orlando, I had plenty of weather-related questions — but that's a story for another day.
Before one of our games, the head coach asked if I'd track shots for both teams. He didn't have to ask twice — challenge accepted.
I opened my Notes app to set up a quick system. Then it hit me: there has to be an app for this.
Sure enough, I found a few options in the App Store, picked the one that looked best, and gave it a go. It worked… mostly. The ads were relentless, and at one point it even reset both shot counts to zero. Thankfully, I remembered the numbers — but I was left thinking:
"There has to be a better way."
So I decided to build one.
Like everyone these days, I don't have endless free time. So I tried something different — what I call "vibe coding."
If you haven't heard the term, it's basically giving an AI tool high-level instructions and letting it write the code.
And honestly? It nailed it.
In about two hours (including a dinner break), I had a fully working web app with:
Was it perfect? No. I spent maybe 20 minutes tweaking visuals. But for a tool built almost entirely by AI — while I ate dinner — it was shockingly good.
If I ever take it to market, I'd refine the UI and add polish. But for internal use, it's rock solid.
Designers and developers still have the upper hand on AI (for now), but for projects like this?
AI isn't just useful — it's a game changer.
The ability to go from "this app sucks" to "here's a working replacement" in two hours changes everything. It's not about replacing human creativity or expertise — it's about removing the friction between having an idea and testing it.
Sometimes the best solutions come from the most frustrating problems. A buggy hockey app led to an experiment that reminded me why I love building things.
And hey, if you're ever at a youth hockey tournament and need shot tracking, I've got you covered.
