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
replace it. Fencing and all other structures had damage 3 years after the flood. Landon approached his coach, Clint Zimmerman, and I to gauge our interest in his project; Clint and I are both former players of the program. We both agreed immediately to assist him in his quest as professional mentors and a plan was designed to address the key factors on the field. First on the agenda were the most important areas on the field: the pitching mound and the infield. Lips had formed over the years of play and the turf had grown in as much as 4 feet in some areas. The back arc had areas that were over 4 feet. Therefore the field would have to be laid out and reshaped to regulation. The pitching mound was more of a peak and had neither table nor landing area, or consistency of shape. There was no good quality clay for push off or landing to maintain the structure or help the pitchers perform better. Landon, being a pitcher, considered the mound his "office" so he took on the challenge to improve its performance. New mound clay was added to build a mound table and landing area. The slope was corrected to regulations of 1 inch per 1 foot. Landon was pleased with the progress and looked forward to using the mound for the 2014 home opener. The infield skin and base paths were next. Over the past 30 years, a local infield mix had been added every year. The result of all the additional infield mix was an elevated surface more than 1 foot above foul territory and outfield. Grass edges were holding water on the infield at the back arc and had to be removed before any grad- ing could take place. The Freedom HS baseball facility had never been graded with consistency before this project. Laser grading was the best approach to remedy the high and low spots in the infield and also drain any surface water away from the infield skin (70% sand and 30% silt, clay, and fines). Drainage was not a major problem through the profile, but it had no stability once in play and left large divots after heavy use. Laser grading and balancing the current mix was the first step in getting the maximum benefit for the playing surface and player per- formance. Once the surface had been graded with the proper slope, a Stabilizer Solutions product was added to the surface and incorpo- April 2014 | SportsTurf 23 www.stma.org Sponsors help! Landon would like to thank all of the sponsors that donated materials and funding to make his Sr. project a reality: - Carolina Green Corp. - Sports Edge - Stabilizer Solutions - Profile Products/Turface - Corbin Turf - Hickory Crawdads - Gerber Collision & Glass - Morganton Federal Savings & Loan - Karin Cook-State Farm Insurance - Leviton - Silver Creek Restaurant - Healthtique Group - Table Rock Heating & Air - Waters Body Shop - Ace Hardware - Lowes Hardware - Jeanette Jarrett - Jim & Phyllis Fox - Wilton Daves - Marie Daves - Wayne & Lynne Turner - Julie Ackley - Scott Mauney - Virgil Elkins - Tom Ford - Andrew Tallent