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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/113699
Level of Submission: Professional Category of Submission: Baseball Head Sports Turf Manager: Greg Burgess Title: Head Groundskeeper Education: Bachelor's Degree in Turfgrass Management Experience: Four seasons in Triple A Charlotte; 3 years grounds crew for Clemson Univserity; student field manager for Clemson baseball/football. Interned for Greenville Drive in their inaugural season (2006) and have been head groundskeeper 2008-present. Full-time staff: Greg Burgess & Ross Groenevelt Other crew to recognize: Chris Rinebold, Christopher Grove, Kevin Donahoo, Barry and Josh Cole, Matthew Yochum, and Kyle Carter Original construction: 2006 Renovation: 2012. Reason for renovation: To remove the accumulated organic layer that was slowing down drainage and contributing to winterkill in our shaded areas. Large areas of this 22,000 sq. ft. have been sodded in the past years resulting in layering issues in several spots giving a weak root zone. Also, it gave this area a uniform Tifway 419 surface opposed to the preexisting surface mixed with 419, Princess 77, and Riviera bermudagrass. What was done: We excavated the top 4" out of the infield and foul territory grass (approx. 22,000 sq. ft.) down to clean USGA spec sand. 300 tons of organic material removed and 300 tons of100% USGA spec sand brought back in to the void. Laser-graded everything in fair territory flat and graded foul territory to its existing clay-warning track edges to give approx. 1-1.5% fall. Sodded everything with Tifway 419 in solid big rolls. Turf blanketed for first 12 days to help promote root growth. Reestablished all clay and warning track edges. Replaced leaky, poor functioning irrigation heads with new heads. With obtaining turf blankets for the sod establish, they give us the tool to use them whenever we want to help combat bermuda winterkill and promote overseed establishment. Turfgrass variety: Predominantly Tifway 419 bermudagrass, with seeded variety bermudagrasses Riviera and Princess 77 in the outfield. Infield and foul territory is all Tifway 419 Rootzone compostion: 100% USGA sand Overseeding: October 3, 2011 overseeded the field in five directions at 8lbs/1000 sq. ft. with a 3-way perennial ryegrass blend (Majesty, Citation Fore, Quicksilver, Charger II). This year, we seeded Oct. 5 in four directions at 6 lbs/1000 sq.ft. (Grand Slam 2, Home Run, Flash II). All seed was topdressed and dragged in thoroughly. Seed began to germinate 5 days later. Drainage: Roger Bossard patented drainage system. 10-inch 100% USGA spec sand with 15 foot drain lines feeding into a main line bordering the warning track. www.stma.org CHALLENGES The theme of this year was rain. We as an organization had an advertised goal of getting 350,000 fans through the season this year. We wound up with 347,400 fans, due to a season high rainouts of three this year. We also set a new, year long record for tarp pulls with 72, a lot of which were dry pulls. The first half of the season, huge storms dropping inches of rain would get within .25 miles away but not ever reach the field, so the tarp was on a lot. The second half of the season these storms would form very close to the field and rain .5+ inches, but .25 mile away from the field stayed dry, so the tarp was on a lot. We had to reschedule events or put them on the concourse because we would get .75-1.5 inches of rain the morning of the event, when only a 10-20% chance of rain was forecasted. Many overnight tarpings were precautionary more than anything. It is a lot easier and cost effective to take off a dry tarp in the morning than to dry out the infield. Toward the beginning of our transition mid-late June, we had 6 days straight of 100-110 degree days which checked out 90% of what ryegrass we still had. This left huge voids in the grass in the infield and foul territory mainly. The outfield definitely struggled as well but not as much as an eyesore. Giving the timing of this heat wave, we did not have enough time to resod the much of these voids, resulting in very poor appearance for a very big July 4th five-game homestand. The playability did not suffer too much. Players kept their footing fine, but we did see a few bad hops. The lack of grass made the field play a lot faster, which the infielders did not like. At this time, we knew that were completely renovating all of the infield and foul mid-Sept., so we juggled trying to grow in these areas versus resodding much of it (ultimately sodding the same 6,000 twice in a 2-month span). The 10-day break after this homestand was perfect to do any necessary sodding, but had to hold off until the 5th day of the break to sod due to two professional fast pitch softball games scheduled in the middle of this break. We ripped out and sodded 5,500 sq. ft on day 6 of the break, only allowing 5 days until our next game. We honestly could have resodded twice the much if the time and resources allowed. All other areas not resodded were pushed hard with .5 lb/1000 ammonium nitrate/weekly with our normal .5 lb 1414-14 biweekly, until suitable conditions and coverage were met. SportsTurf: What channels of communication do you use to reach coaches, administrators and user of your facility? Burgess: The best way I communicate with coaches, new and old, are faceto-face meetings. This gives the coaches a good idea of the person and groundskeeper I am, as well as my intentions of maintaining the surface to a high standard. It always helps to have a good rapport with each coach. There will be coaches that will to come to me to tell me their plans and there are coaches that will never tell me unless I ask them. Some coaches will write their practice schedule for the next day on a dry erase board in the clubhouse following the night's game. This helps, but frequently changes overnight, so I make a point to speak with the coaching staff as they arrive to the ball field to double check their plans. This includes the home and away team because at this level, we have roving coaches in town often and they need to get work in with their players. Their workouts vary from day-to-day so communication is the key to making sure we have the field prepared for whatever drill they are planning. The front office staff is the same way. I prefer face-to-face meetings, but it is very tough as we all are very busy throughout the day. The front office will have homestand meetings as well as game day meetings. I make a good effort to attend all homestand meetings to note any pregame, in-game, or post-game activities going on that would affect the field. Game day meetings are hit or miss depending on the teams' practice schedules. We also have a web-based calendar with all games and special events on it, along with the point person's name. This calendar is updated frequently and helps me have a heads up of games and events through the year to better plan staff, projects, etc. Once our game schedule is set I will plan out my year for when I'm planning to aerify (solid or coring), topdress, resod, etc. As the year plays out, the gaps in the schedule where I plan these projects often get filled with either more games or special events. I communicate my plans to all front office staff to stress which gaps in the schedule are crucial to keep clear so I can do these management projects with the maximum amount of recovery time. SportsTurf 35