IOS Director Emeritus

[Jon Brakel]

This season marks my departure from any leadership role in the IOS. For the last few years I have been relinquishing duties and responsibilities as I have been making plans to step down as the Director of the IOS. The last two years I have been Director in name only and have added only some overall direction. During the off season I gave Mike Krupicka sole control of the IOS. Since I would no longer take an active role in the series it was important that I also step down from any leadership role. There's nothing worse than a leader who doesn't know what's going on.

Five years ago I was laid off from my job. After several months of searching and interviewing I found a new job as a telecom engineer working a long term Avaya project as a contractor. This was supposed to be a 1 year contract position. This week marks my 5th year. I don't get any benefits including no holiday or vacation pay. This makes it difficult to help run tournaments. We often need to be out on the course on the Friday before and I often took a vacation day on the Monday after to finish tournament related tasks. There were other considerations but this was the biggest change in my life that started to encroach on my tournament time.

This has been a difficult decision but is made easier knowing that Mike will be taking over. I am actually leasing the IOS to Mike for $1 per year. I've done this just in case at sometime Mike decides not to run it anymore I *could* step back in to keep it going. It is also easier because I'll still be at the tournaments. I will still help out on the days that Becky plays. I'm also hoping to bring my bent trike to the events that have good paths and do some riding.

So, for those that will be out this Sunday, I'll see you at the course!

Jon Brakel
IOS Director Emeritus

[Tom McManus]

Jon,

Thanks for all the hard work over the years.  The IOS has set the standard for well run, organized, and reasonably priced events. 

[JCleaveland]

Jon,

Thanks for all the hard work over the years.  The IOS has set the standard for well run, organized, and reasonably priced events. 

Ditto BIGTHANKS JON for all you did see you Sunday

[pdga#7648]

Tom hit the nail on the head. Well organized, well ran events, and I always know I will get home at a reasonable time! Thanks for everything Jon. I have played in several IOS events, and never had a bad time!

[Chainmeister]

Jon. As a player, fellow club member and friend...thank you.  IOS has had good stewardship between Bruce, Brett, you and Mike along with Scott running tournaments and always having barrels of plastic etc.  Thanks for well run, fun events that feel like family reunions. Most of the players feel as if it is in part  ours as well. We all take a bit of ownership in these events. We want everybody to have a good time, the course to be in shape, the scores to be posted.  That has a lot to do with the crew behind the table.

If you are going to be on the trike running around the course I expect to see lots of pictures. See you Sunday.

[Jon Brakel]

Thank you all. Things have changed so much since that first Illinois Open in 2003. That first tournament was really a fundraiser for Discontinuum as we had some bills to pay and no money in the bank. I think we raised about $400 for the club which was about a third of the club's debt at the time. At that time we hadn't yet worked out the formula for running a successful series but we did get lots of thank yous for running an affordable tournament and sanctioning all divisions.

We were fairly organized but it was not the well oiled machine that we would later develop. Bruce came up with the financial formula that we ran all of the tournaments by that we could use for any entry fee as long as the park district take was $2 per player or less. A key part of that were the CTPs for the afternoon round. Those CTPs helped define our tournaments in the early years. Brett developed the Final Four Hole concept for the top pro finishers so that everyone could watch the pros play these massive and tough "safari" holes that Brett would design. It was tough when we had to stop running those rounds because of the popularity of the series meant that we were running out of daylight. But I have no doubt that designing those holes helped Brett become a course designer. I was really impressed with the Rockford A tier temporary course that he designed that I dubbed "Brettopia" not just because it was a good course but because it needed to be designed without making any changes to the park at all.

Those years with Bruce and Brett were so much fun. By the end the three of us could run a tournament so easily together and yet we were always looking for things that could be improved. We were the first tournament to run so many things. And so many of them I'd say to Bruce "Really? Do you know how hard that's going to be?" I was always proud that we were the first non-Major tournament to upload scores from the course! The two hardest things to run were the 4th am division when it was just a side game and pro half-in. Pro half-in was always hard but became much easier once we had the "auto-pilot" spreadsheet that Krupicka developed.

I'm not trying to boast but these are the things that I feel most proud of when I look back on what we've accomplished:
- First PDGA sanctioned tournament in Lake County in 10 years
- Offered ALL divisions in PDGA sanctioned events. At the time the only other recurring tournament in the state to offer lower divisions was the tournament every year in Olympia Fields.
- Tracked non PDGA member ratings to keep the fields competitive.
- First to offer a fourth rated amateur division and successfully lobbied the PDGA to make it official.
- First in the state to offer Pro 2. While this was a failed division, it directly led to pro half-in and ams playing pro for merch
- First to offer trophy-only options and successfully lobbied the PDGA to make it official.
- First to offer half-in pro entry.

Not all of those concepts and ideas were as successful as others but all of them except for tracking non-member ratings added choices for our players. All of those concepts above INCLUDING non-member ratings tracking that were pioneered by the IOS were later adopted by the PDGA. That was always a sign to me that we were doing good things. It is funny though what time erases. I don't think anyone at the PDGA remembers anymore where those concepts came from. I guess it doesn't really matter. Brett, Bruce and I know.

[discmonkey]

IOS was my first PDGA tournament experience.  It was a great time and they continue to be some of my favorites.  I credit that first tournament for making me want to play more.  You guys are a class act when it comes to representing disc golf and making it fun for the players.  Thanks for all the hard work guys.  Looking forward to continued success under new leadership!

[CEValkyrie]

Thanks for all the hard work over the years Jon!

[Steven Jacobs]

Thanks for all the hard work over the years including before I even knew disc golf existed!