The 2009 56ers Fall Invitational was played September 11-13 at Reddan Soccer Park and, thanks to spectacular weather, terrific club volunteers, helpful vendors, generous sponsors and all tournament participants, it was another success for our club. Despite the economy and a very busy weekend in Madison (the Ironman and a Wisconsin home game) we hosted our biggest event in years, with 149 teams playing 244 games over the three days.

It is entirely the work of volunteers that made this tournament successful. Almost 300 club members showed up tournament weekend to fill three-hour shifts: field marshalling, cleaning up, selling concessions, shirts and raffle tickets, handing out trophies, and operating the registration, help and scoring desks. Many others, listed below, contributed extra time organizing and overseeing tournament operations. Thank you all.

Special recognition has to go to Norm and Lucie Arendt, the heart and soul of this event. Norm ran tournament operations all weekend, and thanks to his insight and inner calm, our registration, tournament help desk and volunteer coordination went off without a hitch. Lucie was spectacular, too: she organized, conceived and ran concessions again. Thanks to her intense planning and immense time commitment, the roughly 5,000 participants and spectators had ready access to high-quality, reasonably priced food and drinks. Plus, she created the coaches' tent. Lucie and Norm's son John was also on hand at Reddan all weekend, actively seeking needs to be filled. That apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Steve (Mookie) Welch again ran our scoring desk flawlessly, and Dean Groth, our tournament director emeritus, worked the entire tournament weekend filling in wherever needed, and keeping a watchful eye that our tournament director didn't miss anything. Darsi Foss was hotel coordinator, pre-reserving blocks of hotel rooms so that out-of-town participants could successfully compete with Badger and Ironman fans for local hotel accommodations. Karen Weisbrod coordinated T-shirt design and production, and Kirk Wall headed the T-shirt committee. 56er team managers were instrumental in the matching of volunteers with volunteer positions, this on top of all the other work they do for their teams and the club.

A group of 56ers families stepped up for double field marshal shifts this year, including the Benson, Gyaltsen, Handel, Jeffris, Kaldor, Mabirizi, Quade, Quamme, Richard, Roberts/Seppalainan, Sieger, Smith, Tchernev, Wobert and Zarov families. Both Chris Richard and Glenis Benson did even more, staying on after their shifts, to do field marshal coordination and dispatching for an entire day.

No one worked harder this year than Maria Palmer. In addition to leading the awards committee, Maria found our tournament sponsors, collected their cash contributions, produced the sponsor signage and created the raffle, including soliciting and collecting and distributing all those great raffle prizes.

The 2009 56ers Fall tournament was a huge success, compiling 149 teams and 244 games.

The Saturday night party was a new event this year, and it was a blast. The event was the brainchild of Susan Pigorsch, who organized and worried every detail: the band, the food, the permits, the sponsor. Sitting under the stars on a balmy September evening, listening to a steel band and sipping a delicious craft beer is an experience we maybe haven't associated with soccer tournaments in the past, but will in the future. Kudos to Susan.

We appreciated all our sponsors this year, but two really went above and beyond. Sean Foley and Grays Tied House stepped up with a big cash contribution to sponsor the Saturday party, and catered the food and beverages for the event. Rick Hong and Middleton Sports and Fitness contributed in several ways, including a cash sponsorship, the loan of a big tent, endless use of their large-format printer, and help arranging the game balls.

John Reddan and Ryan Uphoff were on-site all weekend as coaching directors to deal with any soccer issues that arose. Mr. Bill Reddan was on hand to pass out trophies and congratulate participants. Chris Lay and the MAYSA team had Reddan Soccer Park in wonderful condition, and were generous with their advice, assistance and logistical support. Bob and Jason Anderson provided referee coordination services, and David Bernhardt, Trisha Gudex, John Fowler from UW Sports Medicine were kept busy as tournament trainers.

The Madison 56ers Board members provided support and advice throughout the process. Board members also worked all weekend as the tournament pursers, and Sean Kinsey acted as board liaison throughout. Mary Jo White, the 56ers club administrator, put in a lot of work behind the scenes and was a source of support and encouragement throughout.

Other key committee volunteers:

Awards:		Connie Barsic, Jim Ledin, Sanna Sorensen, Tom Steidmann
Concessions:		Deb Boyke, Claire Kircher, Roy Noriega, Heidi Rossiter, John & Laura Sango
T-Shirts:		Diane Carlson, Sue Dolan, Jody Femrite, Laura Lenzen, Laura Parmentier
Operations:		Rita Carpenter, Kent & Kris Hanson, Dena & Bob Jacobs, Amy Mosher-Garvey, Joan Peterson, Mary Schultz
Fundraising:		Marc & Tracy Gray, Mike Hanson, John Livesey