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/282941
thought you could go to the site and put stone down and grade it and put turf down and there you go. It's certainly not that simple. We were all hitting our heads against the same issues." Badly built sports fields fail, and owners often did not have the funds to correct the myriad problems they were faced with. Price was glad to see a certification that would finally provide a benchmark. "I think the certifications certainly hold a lot of weight," said Price. "More and more people are incorporating that into their specifications. Obviously it helps me when we see it on requirements." The science of sports turf is growing overall. More universities are offering sports turf programs, and those programs are being expanded to cover not just golf (for which some were originally designed) but the plethora of other sports played. "It's an exciting time," said Price. "I really feel like we're on the cusp of all that." Certifications such as CFB and CSFM are not granted in perpetu- ity; those who hold them must maintain them on a regular basis by ac- cruing educational and activity points. "There's no question in my mind; if you can pass that test, without question you are qualified," said Price. "You have the knowledge." It's not just personal opinion, either. In a 2008 decision by the At- torney General of Massachusetts, the AG upheld the right of a local school district to restrict bidding for a running track project to compa- nies employing an ASBA Certified Track Builder. In defending its bid- ding restriction, the school district successfully argued it had encoun- tered serious problems regarding the workmanship in prior track instal- lations justifying the use of the certification requirement as a means of identifying qualified contractors. (It is also worth noting that the Mas- sachusetts Attorney General Office supported a town's right to include minimum contractor experience clauses in bidding documents as long as they were reasonable). Price is not surprised about the growing demand for certification and he is glad to see it. "I'd say certifications definitely sets us apart from other companies. It's good that there is a standard." Note: Information on the Certified Sports Field Manager exam is available from STMA (http://www.stma.org/). Information on the Cer- tified Field Builder exam is available from ASBA (http://www.sports- builders.org/) n Mary Helen Sprecher is a free lance writer who wrote this article on be- half of the American Sports Builders Association. ASBA is a non-profit asso- ciation helping designers, builders, owners, operators and users understand quality athletic facility construction. ASBA publishes Sports Fields: A Construction and Maintenance Manual, a comprehensive guide to the design, construction and maintenance of sports fields. The book is available for purchase either in hard copy or in electronic form. Information is avail- able at www.sportsbuilders.org. April 2014 | SportsTurf 13 www.stma.org Mid-season turf replacement at Washington's FedEx Field using Carolina Green Corp.'s sod grown on plastic.