SportsTurf

December 2011

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.

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FFacility&Operations acility&Operations | J. Tim Vanini, PhD Vanini hikes unmarked career trail posed to me by the editor of this magazine. How did I get my business Truth be known, the idea of New Dimen- sions Turf (NDT) actually started in graduate school at Michigan State University. I was brainstorming about the next step in my life after completion of my PhD program, and I was thinking of becoming a professor or start- ing a consulting business. If I started a business, "What would I name it?" For me, the beauty of research is about "possibility"; it can take you in directions you never considered. In this case, I had to move into a new possibility or "new di- mension" of thinking in order to solve the PhD question at hand, "How do you get a sports field ready in 70 days?" So why not think about problem solving or new possibilities in the busi- ness world? This concept is more and more abundant to me as a consultant, an educator and a business person, and it starts with one conversation after another with whomever. It's been my experience that help is always there if you ask for it. When I started my busi- ness in July 2009, the first thing I realized was life was not going to revolve around an aca- demic calendar. Life was going to change. I was starting a business, and was stumped on where to begin. So I started networking and asking questions about this transition into setting up a turfgrass research and consulting business in Buffalo. I discovered that a Small Business De- velopment Center was just down the road from me, and here was the best part, it was free. My contact, Marilyn Roach, aided me on the path of thinking of my professional life from a business point of view. At our first meet- ing, Marilyn asked me questions that were not going? This was the question difficult and yet I had no answers, such as "What is your cash flow?" and "Do you have a marketing strategy?" I had nothing. Even though these items were in the back of my mind, they were quickly brought to the front of my mind. Using my experience from playing sports or attending graduate school, I had to go to work. And more importantly, be willing to do things differently. I had to start viewing my world dif- ferently. I had to think in a New Dimension. One example of this came early on. When I first started taking on the business full-time, I was working on a busi- ness deal that ultimately fell apart. Needless to say, I was disappointed. Here I am trying to get my business and really, my life, off the ground and it wasn't happening the way I anticipated. I shared this with a friend of mine who said, "Tim, it's been my experience that when one door closes, two doors open." This axiom has aided me many times until I finally "got it" and miraculously, I walked through the doors and business started happening. Hence, a New Dimension. THREE TENETS It's my belief a sports field manager's phi- losophy should consider the following three tenets. These come from my formal educa- tion, research background, people manage- ment and life experiences. They are: understanding turfgrass fundamentals, col- lecting data, and continuing education with research and technology. By using these tenets, a sports field manager gets access to providing a well-conditioned sports field. Here's the catch: it's also only, in my humble opinion, 20% of the job. The other 80% has everything to do with continuing communi- cation with your crew and superiors. The 80% is the "other stuff" and this seems to be By having knowl- edge of good soil and turfgrass funda- mentals, I could allocate my budget items to the practices that were critical for a successful sports field; mowing, over- seeding, fertilizing and core cultivation. Notice there is no irrigation in the last sentence. the case no matter the job. So what am I talking about with educa- tion, background, and experience? Growing up, I played soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse at a very competitive level. I had the good fortune of playing 4 years of college hockey (played in every game possible) at Cornell University and afterwards moved onto Michigan State Univer- sity to earn my 2-year certification degree as a golf course superintend- ent. While finishing up that degree, I became in- terested in attending graduate school and later earned a master's degree in turfgrass science fo- cusing on the utilization of crumb rubber in a va- riety of turfgrass situa- tions. From this project, Dr. John N. Rogers, III and I received a US Patent for topdressing crumb rubber on natural turfgrass. After completing my master's degree, I de- cided to get into coach- ing college hockey (ask me when you see me at the STMA Conference in Long Beach, CA) and for most of my coaching tenure, I coached at Cortland State (NY) while finish- ing with Coach of the Year Honors after 4 years. Once I got the coaching bug out of my system, I earned my PhD at Michigan State University in 2005. Then I went back to my alma mater in Buffalo, NY, Nichols School, where I was appointed Director of Sports Fields, taught math and coached hockey and lacrosse. DATA IS IMPORTANT I believe I have a unique perspective for the turfgrass industry because I have a PhD, AND I have managed sports fields with un- limited and minimal budgets. At Nichols School there was a limited budget. Two things came out of this: I had to be creative and I had to have some tough conversations. It's been my experience that help is always there if you ask for it. 22 SportsTurf | December 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com By

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