SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/517437
40 SportsTurf | June 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com GEORGIA STATE SOCCER COMPLEX, ATLANTA, GA Category of Submission: College Soccer Sports Turf Manager: Kyle Slaton, CSFM Title: Director of Sports Turf and Grounds Education: Bachelor of Science, The Pennsylvania State University, May 2005 Experience: I'm currently in my fourth year at Georgia State. Previously I was the Head Groundskeeper for a Single-A baseball team for 4 years. I also have experience as an intern with the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, and Philadelphia Eagles. Original construction: July 2007 Rootzone: Native soil; clay Turfgrass variety: Tifway 419 bermu- dagrass Overseed: Field is topdressed heavily each year with topdressing sand forming a cur- rent 3-inch sand cap on top of the clay soil. Drainage: No drainage system FIELD OF THE YEAR The Field of the Year Awards program is made possible by the support of sponsors Ewing, Graff's Turf, Hunter Industries and World Class Athletic Services. WHY STMA SHOULD CONSIDER YOUR FIELD A WINNER? Coaches, players, and referees say the field at the Georgia State Soccer Complex is one of the best surfaces they play on. It's the things we fight on a daily basis that makes us proud of this field and why it deserves the designation of "STMA College Soccer Field of the Year." The biggest challenge we face is that the field is located in a flood plain. The area around the field floods often and the play- ing surface flooded this past January. We also have a clay-rich native soil. To improve conditions we started a heavy laser top- dressing program 4 years ago. Every June, we put out 150 tons of sand and spread it with a laser grader. We also core aerify at this time to replace some of the soil with sand. This has given us a "sand cap" which has helped with infiltration. We have begun to treat our field as a sand based field in or- der to maintain that sand layer. Our yearly hours of use may not look high, but are concentrated into a small time period. The field is used by both men's and women's soccer. We don't have a full-sized practice field so most train- ing is done on the game field. Of the 300 annual hours, more than 2/3 hap- pen during the fall, and only a tenth is for games. Without a practice field, our cultural practices along with our water management and fertility programs are that much more important. BUDGET BREAKDOWN Labor (man hours): Last year 625 hours; this year 745 hours Materials (cost/year) (fertilizer, fungicide, herbicide, insecti- cide, conditioners, amendments, seed, topdressing, marking materials, other turf maintenance products): Last year $11,100; this year $13,900 Equipment maintenance (cost per year): Last year $2,500; this year $3,125