2009 IRI THANK YOU

[Travis Hoffman]

In addition to all the usual thank you's given to those who work so hard to make IRI such a great time, I'd like to add a few specific thanks:

• Thank you for bringing back the adult drive team matches in such an awesome manner. In one hour +, the old geezers on our alliance got to play seven matches (should have been only six, but my next bullet point covers that), 4 more than I had played in 3 IRI mentor rounds from 2004-2006. The opportunity to help out local charities in the process was just icing on the cake. Thanks to our alliance partners 217 and 47 for picking us and putting on a good show together.

• Thank you to the Copiolis for their patience and understanding after I pressured Paul's poor wife into committing a penalty by illegally shooting a 2nd supercell at the end of our first match , resulting in a tie. A perfect storm of bad timing, adrenaline, and oversight combined together such that I did not realize she had already shot and scored a supercell (sno-coning it on top of the vision target, no less!).

• Thank you to all those who helped out the pre-rookies in attendance at the IRI. I know our sponsored team, Innovators Robotics out of Dayton, spent hours working with the Team 379 mentors who came with us on the trip and learned a lot driving 379's (and eventually, 234's) robot. I do have one suggestion though - next year, if there aren't enough pre-rookies to fill out a full match card, I do hope the IRI folks can add more structure to the event, inviting veteran teams to participate in matches during the times the practice field is reserved for the challenge, helping give the pre-rooks a more complete match experience. I believe volunteers started doing this on Saturday, which is great.