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/409813
42 SportsTurf | November 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com Field oF the Year The Jungle, louiSa CounTy high SChool, Mineral, VA Category of Submission: Schools/Parks Soccer Sports Turf Manager: Michael Hopkins (now retired) Title: Turf Grass Science Instructor/Sports Turf Manager Education: Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Education Experience: My excavation company has been building sports fields for the past eight years in col- laboration with a local turf grass consulting firm. In 2009, I also transitioned from teaching Ag Mechanics to teaching Turf Grass Science at Louisa County High School and as a result, took over management of the athletic fields. I joined the STMA in 2009 as well. I have found that the annual conferences and many of the local field days and events have given me the information necessary to improve my performance as a sports turf manager. The help that I have received from other members and from the educational workshops has made a huge difference in the quality of our fields and in the instruction that I give to my turf students. In 2011 I won Football Field of the year. Full-time staff: None Part-time staff: Advanced Turf Science Class known as "The Jungle Turf Crew" Original construction: 1995 Rootzone: Native soil Turfgrass variety: Patriot Bermudagrass Overseed: We are overseeding this year with 25 lbs. of rye grass per 1000 sq. ft., 1/2 in mid Sept., spot seed high traffic areas in October and seed the rest after football season. I have found that the best way to incorporate it into the Patriot Bermuda is to run the slicer and or aera-vator over the field first, then dethatch with a tine dethatcher, seed, then run a cultipacker over it to make good seed to soil contact. I have found with Patriot that the mat is so tight and thick it is hard to get good germination without some type of mechanical incorporation. I have also learned to overseed the high traffic areas prior to each game instead of waiting until after the game. By doing this I can use "foot" compaction to achieve good seed to soil contact. With overseeding it is better to be proactive than reactive. That means I need to be seeding about two weeks ahead of when I want the field to look good for a game. Drainage: Crowned with a 1.5% slope with side drains Why STMA Should conSider your field A Winner? I am sure there are other fields across America that are just as deserving as "e Jungle" in quality of turf and looks, but I believe we have some unique aspects to our program that make us stand above the com- petition. e first reason we deserve this honor is that even though I oversee the field mainte- nance and game prep, most of the day to day work is done by the students in my two Turf Science classes. e Advanced Turf Science class has been named the "Jungle Turf Crew" because their main responsibility is the sta- dium and baseball field, while the first year classes maintain the practice fields and soft- ball field. ese students do everything from picking up trash, to running and maintaining the equipment, to laying out and performing all of the painting duties on the field. ey go far beyond their normal class responsi- bilities by working many hours outside of class time on the fields during game weeks. is has given all of these students, many of whom don't normally excel in school, a real purpose and something to have real pride in at school. Consequently over the years, this has been the deciding factor in many of my students pursuing careers in the turf indus- try. Two years ago, six of my former students were enrolled at VA Tech in either the two or four year turf program. Two alumni of the Jungle Turf Crew have been active in STMA while they were students at Virginia Tech, competing in the Student Challenge and re- ceiving STMA scholarships. ey are both now employed in the turf industry. Being a small public high school, we don't have the luxury of a large budget, so by saving money on labor we are able to focus more on agro- nomic practices. Plus since we use our ath- letic fields as labs for our students, we can focus on using and teaching the best prac- tices available. Please also need consider the situation that we are presently faced with."e Jungle" has always been known as the place to see great sports and witness side shows like fire- works, sky divers, a real lion and a fire breath- ing lion constructed out of metal, just to name a few. It took on a totally new meaning on August 23rd, 2011 when a 5.8 earthquake struck our school causing it to be condemned and subsequently torn down. After sharing the Middle School on alternate days for 4 months, our entire school was shifted to trailers which will be our home until the new school is built. e only structure and area not affected by all of this chaos was our stadium, also known as "e Jungle" (our mascot is a lion). "e Jungle" is now the only place big enough to hold school-wide and community events so our field has become a focal point of school and community pride. "e Jungle" was a "good" football field when I started as turf manager in 2009 (it was renovated in 2006 with Patriot Bermuda). We took that field during the fall season and made it a "great" field to play on. e Jungle Turf Crew motto was "Going from Good to Great" from 2009 through 2011. Where we have