To everyone who came to the tournament last weekend, my biggest thanks! It was a great mix of awesome people from all over helping us pull off this massive undertaking. We’re working on preparing the results and our media for the web, as well as our budget, and will share all of that as soon as we can.
If ordered a shirt, paid for it and didn’t receive it, or would like to buy a shirt, send me an email and I’ll get it to you somehow. We have a few odd ones left, and are considering a reprint if there’s some interest. I’m printing the posters this weekend and those of you who ordered and paid for them will receive them in the mail. I’ll post the final design and purchase instructions on mplsbikepolo.com after they’re printed. Sorry about not having them ready for the tournament, I was unable to get studio time in the days leading up to the tourney.
At the awards ceremony, I didn’t really have the time to get into the details of how much everyone contributed to our event.
First, a lot of you don’t know Landon very well. He put untold hours into the tournament software we barely used, put up cash to finance the event while we were waiting for registration and sponsorship, and worked with Franklin to get goals and balls. He did almost all the heavy lifting in getting our non-profit set up. He also really helped bring everything together over the last couple of weeks. Of course, he was there all through the tournament running the numbers and partying hardcore.
Dustin, Landon’s brother AKA Mr. Do, coordinated our facilities. He did a shit-ton of work to make the boards, goals, bathrooms and surfaces work. He bought and returned $1200 of lumber at Home Depot, then talked down the guy at another store—getting the plywood for $400. Without his van, tools, cash, attitude and unemployment, the tournament would not have gone off as well. He reffed the shit out of about 1,000 games.
Jerry and Nick basically designed the boards (with committee input, naturally) and wrote the lumber order. John let us destroy his back yard while making and storing the boards. Nick rented a U-haul trailer and provided his personal vehicle to transport the boards. Jerry reffed a lot of games too.
Pretty sure the entire crew contributed to the construction of the boards at some point, but Dustin, Ebbin, Jerry, Jeff, John, Nick, James, Sven and Kat did most of the sawing and screwing. On Friday night, we got a ton of help from out-of-towners to get the boards built on-site expeditiously. On Sunday night we got tons of help striking and transporting the boards, but we want to especially thank the crews from Winnipeg and Ann Arbor who stuck around until the finish.
Ebbin, Jaimie (who couldn’t be at the tournament) and Kat coordinated most of the food preparation, storage and service. This is one of the things I wish I had called out more specifically at the awards ceremony. We got an account at a supplier, and these three, with the help of Sven and non-player Greta, put a great deal of effort into making sure all of our players were well-fed. Their work was supplemented by our food sponsors Pizza Lucé and Bruegger’s Bagels.
Kat handled most of the housing arrangements, matching players up with local hosts. Awesome, everyone had a place to sleep! She also reffed tons of games. Galen at the Oakeshott Institute housed 10 teams at their arms & armor shop inside a church. Thanks to Jonny Hunter for the connection.
Sven and Ebbin did most of the sponsor work, helping to hook us up with cash to run the tourney and prizes for players. The super-awesome Beau Layman created the Minnesota Medals and Most Heart prizes. The contributions of our sponsors cannot be overstated.
John G aka Johnny Freewheel, in addition to working on board design and construction, got us power and sound at the courts through his employer. We wish we could have had it both days, but rain will be rain and it was really nice to not have to run around and yell all day on Sunday too.
Laura, one of our occasional players, worked with her non-profit, the One Small Circle Foundation, to fund MWBPC8 as part of their mission to support micro-communities while teaching students about finance and community support.
In addition to our stellar crew of local poloists, we got some help from some outsiders that don’t quite qualify as sponsors but definitely did their part, whether due to my coercion or out of the goodness of their hearts.
Bob Waitz helped us track down a lot of 2x4s and 2x6s that went into constructing the boards, and helped us transport them from the far suburbs into the city. The lumber itself came from Marty, whose barn was destroyed by a tornado, and the lumber was taking up space on his property. Stu Raymond lightly abused his position to help us get our printed materials (spoke cards, game forms, player packets) ready in time for the tournament, even if the designer (ahem) was running super-late. Greta was at Dunwoody most of the time running errands (read: buying booze for Landon and I), but also cooked a shitload of rice and did almost any task assigned to her. Kristin helped us do some sales and opened up some time for us to work on data management. It was her first bike polo experience!
Dave and Maggie from Tillie’s Bean, in addition to being our coffee sponsor, provided us with additional water vessels, helped us sling raffle tickets, and were an all-around awesome addition the the tourney. Landon and Dustin’s mom Ronnie took a ton of photos, helped us get party beer, and was our raffle drawer. Gene and the whole staff at One On One Bicycle Studio made the insane Saturday party possible, and never seemed to be irritated that a bunch of out-of-towners were ruining their reputation with the neighbors. Jarret and the bar staff at the 501 Club were helpful and accommodating as usual. We also received substantial cash donations from my sister, Letta, and Lucky from St. Louis.
