F.O.Y. Field of the Year
Denson & crew handle salt, weather to win College Soccer award
T
HE FIELD AT COBB STA- DIUM,University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, was named the Sports Turf Managers Association's
2010 College Soccer Field of the Year. Chris Denson led a crew that includes Geovani DeArmas, German Larios, and Jose Gutierrez. From Denson's award entry: "There are several maintenance challenges
we deal with throughout the year. Due to the close proximity to the ocean, there is a small amount of salt water intrusion in our irriga- tion well. If the well is drilled any deeper, the field would be irrigated with brackish water. Due to the shallow fresh water table, the suc- tion line can't be raised to fresher water. This situation is countered with lime and chelated calcium applications and infrequent irriga-
tion during the rainy season due to large amounts of rainfall. "Another challenge we have is the variety
of turf we have. Soccer has GN-1 variety the same as the practice football field. Al- though the GN-1variety fits the application due to the amount of activity the field re- ceives, there is no sod farm producing this variety in the state of Florida or the joining
38 SportsTurf | October 2011
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