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/147380
Facility&Operations and park district projects. It has grown to the drainage systems that rely point where it works with large universities, largely on sand. "And we went including a renovation of the new varsity kind of crazy-overboard with soccer field at Wisconsin-Madison, for Kerdrainage on athletic fields for a shasky, and resodding the famed gridiron at while," she said. "But you can't Notre Dame Stadium. LSF has also built play football on a beach. You're minor league baseball diamonds across the not going to maintain a good Midwest. football field in 100 percent But the firm still handles school and park sand." district projects, and it's here that Lohmann Dr. Goatley concurred: "I feels the golf background is even more applithink that many of the golf turf cable because it often brings with it cost effimanagers have probably been a ciencies, and ongoing agronomic little more in tune with spoonconsultation. feeding fertilization programs "These schools don't have a lot of reand attention to detail in irrigasources, so if the job isn't done properly, it tion management," he said. ends up costing them a fortune," he says. "However, they will have to "People will call me and say, 'We have 3gain experience in the different year-old field and it's not draining.' First types of traffic between the difthing I'll say is, 'Are you aerifying?'" ferent types of players and A good example is Lakes Community equipment on the turf, as there High School in Lake Villa, IL where the is great disparity between the school, through a local contractor, built a traffic imparted on a golf green brand new football field that experienced vs. that of a heavily trafficked serious drainage and settling issues before athletic field. And probably the its first season had even finished. It had a biggest edge trained sports turf huge crown on it, which, according to managers will have is skin-area Lohmann, is usually a good sign that whomanagement, for baseball and ever built it was relying on surface softball fields. There are equal Top: THE STRATEGY PLAN for the Lakes Community HS football field. Bottom: INSTALLED DRAINAGE at Fifth Third drainage—which means the contractor parts art and science in this area Stadium, home of the West Michigan Whitecaps. probably didn't equip it with enough subof sports turf management, and surface drainage. the 'art' must be gained by exseveral former golf superintendents that I "We came in and stripped between hash perience and by training with a skilled dirt work with, here in Virginia, who switched marks and incorporated 500 tons of sand, manager. careers into sports turf management long rototilled it in and herringbone-drained the "Many of the principles in construction before the economic downturn. They are all middle of the field," he says. "We mellowed are the same... some of the soil mediums very successful sports turf managers." out the crown and it's been great. They love change due to the necessity for varying soil But there are tensions and sport-specific it but they spent money with us they didn't strengths, drainage, etc., but I think contracnuances to be managed, as sports turf manneed to spend, if the build had been done tors who know their business will apply their agers and sports turf contractors deal with properly the first time. A big university knowledge equally well in both areas. It's no what many golf-educated superintendents might be able to take a hit like that, but high surprise that a constant theme for success in and contractors see as a new, higher stanschools can't." both areas is drainage, drainage, and dard of expertise. LSF revisits Lakes Community every year drainage." Amy Fouty, the sports turf manager at to aerify and topdress the field, a mainstay of Michigan State University since 2003, spent RESOURCES ARE KEY every golf maintenance regimen. "You can 17 years in the golf business before moving effectively enhance drainage in a topsoil field Jim Lohmann would add three more key over to sports turf. (In fact, she's married to but if you don't aerify, it will get hard and words: resources, resources, resources. a course superintendent.) "When I started Lohmann Sports Fields cut its teeth in the create a layer that water won't get through," on this side of the business, I thought 'This Lohmann says. "You've got to break up that sports turf business by handling high school is gonna be really easy' having come from a golf background. But it's not been that way You can run into all sorts of problems if you're at all. It's different. Different conditions, different challenges." dealing with a landscape company that hasn't Fouty noted that over the past 20 years, properly built a field before golf courses have moved strongly toward 18 SportsTurf | August 2013 www.sportsturfonline.com