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www.stma.org August 2015 | SportsTurf 45 San Diego Conference details nearly complete STMA IN ACTION For more on the latest news, please visit www.sportsturfonline.com and www.stma.org. News from the Sports Turf Managers Association T he 2016 STMA Annual Conference and events program is nearly set. Committees have finished developing the educational program, the off-site tours, and the SAFE golf tournament. OPENING SESSION A focus on injury research and prevention will be presented at the beginning of the conference. Three highly respected research- ers will address sports injuries during the Opening Session on Wednesday, January 20, at 8 am. They will give detailed follow-up presentations based on their introductory remarks later in the conference. Richard Kent, PhD, University of Virginia, will speak on injury biomechanics. Dr. Kent is a Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia and Deputy Director of the UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics. He is also Principal Scientist of Biomechanics Consulting and Research and President of the Partnership for Athletic Shoes and Surfaces. He has worked on the NFL Foot and Ankle Committee since 2008 and chaired the Taskforce to develop the NFL's Recommended Practices for Gameday Fields. He will present "Shoes and Surfaces: Partners in the Reduction of Injury Risk for Elite Athletes" that will review the ongoing research and evaluation studies being performed by the NFL Foot & Ankle Committee, including shoe traction and bending behaviors, turf mechanics, and the fundamental biomechanics of foot and ankle injuries. Dan Russell, PhD, The Pennsylvania State University, will address the physics and acoustics of baseball bats. He holds a BS in Physics, B.Mus. in Piano Performance, MS in Applied Physics, and a PhD in Acoustics (Penn State, 1995). Russell spent 16 years on the physics faculty at Kettering University, teaching undergraduate physics and acoustics and developing an active undergraduate acoustics laboratory and research group. He is currently Professor of Acoustics and the Director of Distance Education for the Graduate Program in Acoustics at Penn State. His primary research area involves the acoustics and vibration of sports equipment and he has provided testing and vibration consulting services for several sporting goods manufacturers, including the testing and development of vibration absorbers used by Marucci Sports and STX to minimize sting in baseball bats and field hockey sticks. His presentation, "At the Crack of the Bat - The Science of Wood Baseball Bats" will trace the history and use of different types of wood baseball bats used by MLB players. High speed video will be used to discuss the bat-ball col- lision and the reasons bats break. Joel Stitzel, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, is the Department chair of the Biomedical Engineering department, which is a department whose research and educational programs reside within the Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. He received a BS from Virginia Poly Technical Institute, an MS at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a PhD also from Virginia Poly Technical Institute. Stitzel's current research interests involve crash injury research and engi- neering biomechanics of trauma, automotive safety, and sports and military biomechanics. A major project he has been involved in is the creation of a new generation of human body models to represent live humans with precision and detail not known in research "dummies" before. His presentation will focus on sports injury related research and biomechanics. SEMINAR-ON-WHEELS TOURS SET This always-popular event is sponsored by Green One and Bush Sports Turf. The STMA Seminar on Wheels subcommittee, chaired by Mike Tarantino, CSFM, has created a day and a half of tours to sports venues around the city. Registration for the tours will be open October 1 at STMA.org. Full day, 4-stop tour, Tuesday, January 19. SoCal Sports Complex. Located in Oceanside, the complex is approximately 100 acres with 23 full-size soccer fields. Its larg- est events will attract more than 200-250 teams from all over the nation and some international teams. These events draw approximately 10,000-15,000 people on site each day. This facility is managed by sports field manager Zach Dobek. Del Mar Racetrack. One of the nation's leading racetracks offering first-rate Thoroughbred competition has a capacity of 44,000. It is located in the seaside city of Del Mar, 20 miles north of San Diego. Owned by the State of California and leased by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, it was built through a partnership including actors Bing Crosby, Pat O'Brien, Gary Cooper, Joe E. Brown, Charles Howard and Oliver Hardy in 1937. The facility is managed by sports field manager Laef Dickerson. The San Diego Jewish Academy. This private school for pre- school through high school is located on a 56-acre campus with a thriving athletics program. Its soccer field won the 2009 STMA Field of the Year. Manny Dias manages the athletic fields for the Academy. Petco Park. The home of the San Diego Padres was built in 2004 in downtown San Diego and is within walking distance to the conference host hotel, the Manchester Grand Hyatt. Petco has many unique features and amenities and is known as "The World's Best Ballpark in America's Finest City." Petco has been selected to host the 2016 MLB All Star Game. Sports