www.stma.org December 2014 | SportsTurf 25
John Mascaro's Photo Quiz
John Mascaro is President of Turf-Tec International
John Mascaro's Photo Quiz Answers from page 19
If you would like to submit a photograph for John Mascaro's Photo Quiz please send it to John Mascaro, 1471 Capital Circle NW, Ste # 13, Tallahassee,
FL 32303 call (850) 580-4026 or email to john@turf-tec.com. If your photograph is selected, you will receive full credit. All photos submitted will
become property of SportsTurf magazine and the Sports Turf Managers Association.
This athletic field was constructed in the
1970's out of a sand, silt and clay base with
12 inches of native loam sand for the rootzone.
The current sports turf manager has been at
this facility for 15 years and this field from
time to time had small depressions appear.
One particularly wet year, the area had heavy
spring rains that included two floods where
a portion of this athletic field, which borders
a river, was underwater. After the floods, six
large sinkholes appeared in the field with one
being as large as a car. When they excavated
to find the problem, they dug down approxi-
mately 12 feet and found decayed stumps and
logs. Apparently, at the time of construction,
it was common practice to bury stumps when
clearing land areas. The areas were repaired
by removing the turf, tamping the bottom of
hole until the soil was firm, and then the holes
were filled with a good rootzone mix and
tamped firm. The area was then topped with
some native loam sand and overseeded with
some pre-germinated seed.
On this particular day of the photo, the
Sports Turf Manager was on a Bobcat when
the tire fell into this 3-foot deep sink hole.
Knowing the history of the field, and witness-
ing some of the larger holes, the Sports Turf
Manager feared that this might be the end
so he quickly bailed out of the machine "just
in case." Luckily it was a smaller hole and the
repair was made fairly quickly and without loss
of much time—or any employees.
Photo submitted by Peter Thibeault CSFM,
Sports Turf Manager at Noble and Greenough
School, Dedham, MA.
