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/183915
F.O.Y. | Don Gaebelein Field face to face. If it is something quick, I eiST: How do you balance your work ther text or e-mail. If it is a scheduling situand personal time? ation, I prefer e-mail so that I have a paper Weigel: A lot of people think that trail. Face to face is best when it is somebecause we work at a school, our hours thing that needs to be explained more in are short and we only work when depth. I try to communicate daily with the classes are in session. As most readers ONE OF MY FAVORITES. This was preparing for our coaches/athletic director on our field conknow, this is not true. We deal with livsummer tournament that takes place at the end of May ditions and also in regard to any changes to and goes into June (travel team baseball). This is the only ing things and much of what we do is travel team tournament we host at the school. their schedules. I have learned that the dependent on weather conditions bemore often you communicate, the more yond our control. Just when you think trust and respect you gain from them. For example, if we have had a everything IS under control, a new plant disease springs up or a main lot of rain, they respect my decision to call or postpone a game rather water line breaks and floods a field. When I first started as the directhan questioning it because I have been upfront and proactive with tor, I spent a lot of time at work and felt like I needed to do everythem in the past. thing. I would work on weekends and sometimes bring my wife in with me just so we could spend some time together, even if it was just ST: What are your specific job responsibilities? What do find most driving around campus and checking the fields. A year ago, we had enjoyable? What task is your least favorite and why? our first child, and I have since tried to slow down and spend more Weigel: I am the Director of Grounds which means that every time at home. A real plus is that our son is in daycare here at Wesleyan growing thing outdoors is my staff's responsibility. We now have just so I can drop in and see him whenever I want. Another positive is over 20 acres of athletic fields to maintain as we just added 5 more having a great staff I can rely on. David Thrower, Jose Flores, and this past summer. We also have 65 acres of ornamental grass and landZack Lindner make it a lot easier to get away and trust that the job is scape that we maintain, totaling 85 acres of ground. Included in these taken care of. I try not to work much on the weekends anymore but 85 acres is a playground as well as a walking/running trail on which that doesn't always work out as planned. Another challenge is visiting our cross country team competes in the fall. All the set-up for games, our families in Indiana. We usually like to go for a week around meets, and matches falls under our watch. Football, softball, cross Christmas and a week in the summer. Obviously, the winter is a good country, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, and track make up our athtime to get away, but the summer trip can sometimes be hard to coorletic schedule. As of this coming spring when we will add a middle dinate with my work schedule. school lacrosse program; every varsity sport we have will be replicated in middle school. We also maintain areas for band practice during the ST: What changes are you planning to make or have you made to fall by doing things such as lining the baseball field for their practices your maintenance plan for 2013, if any? during the week. Our graduation ceremony in May is held outdoors, Weigel: I tend to believe in "if it isn't broke, don't fix it." After and preparing for it is also our responsibility. tinkering with our plan for 4 years, the last two have been very sucSeeing the student athletes compete on the fields is the most enjoycessful. Adding deep tine aerification to our football and baseball able part of my job. The end result of all our hard work and dedication fields has been the most beneficial process that we have implemented. is put to use at the end of the day when a team takes the field. My crew Steve Mitchell from Mitchell Reel Works comes in over the summer and I enjoy seeing the visiting teams use our facilities, especially when to pull plugs on our fields. These plugs can be as deep as 10 inches in they compliment the way the fields look and play. Even our student length. This has helped tremendously with our drainage and transiathletes compliment us on a daily basis, which is always nice to hear. tion. We have not had to sod any of the fields since we initiated the My least favorite task is the office work and budgeting. It is a necdeep tine process. The only change I could foresee is deep tining the essary part of my job, but I much prefer the actual hands on work on baseball field twice next summer instead of just once. the grounds. ST: Are you yet involved in sustainable management practices? If ST: How did you get started in turf management? so, what are you doing? Weigel: While growing up, I mowed several yards around town, Weigel: Currently I am researching soil moisture monitors that and always enjoyed it. At the time, I didn't realize you could actually will be hooked up to our irrigation software to help us conserve water go to college and study turf. I started my freshman year at Indiana on our fields. As yet we have not selected a particular product. University where I studied Sports Marketing/Management. The following year, I transferred to the University of Tennessee where my ST: How do you see your job changing in the future? girlfriend (now wife) was enrolled, with intentions of continuing the Weigel: Each day at Wesleyan can present a new challenge. The same major. There I met Dr. John Sorochan, associate turf professor, addition of 5 acres of soccer fields and a middle school lacrosse prowho persuaded me to go into the turf field instead. The following gram is just one example of the constant change in my position. More year, I interned with the Indianapolis Indians and realized this was grounds mean more maintenance, painting, and other responsibilities. something I had a real passion for. After spending 3 years and a sumWesleyan always strives for perfection and is constantly adding or immer with Dr. Sorochan at UT, together with a baseball season under proving something on campus to attain that goal. My job is to do Jamie Mehringer, the then-head groundskeeper for the Indy Indians, I whatever I can to insure that the grounds live up to the high standard knew my future was in sports turf. that our staff and students deserve and have come to expect. n 38 SportsTurf | October 2013 www.sportsturfonline.com