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/54529
STMA PRESIDENT take on a punch card meant your program didn't work. I spent hours in the computing center trying to figure out mistakes on punch cards. That's why I never became a computer scientist." After two semesters confounded by punch cards, Goatley switched to agriculture economics, but admitted he still had little direction. He didn't find his calling here, either, a fortunate event, it turns out, for his colleagues and students at MSU and Virginia Tech. "I started to realize (ag econ) wasn't what I was called to do because in simulations of the stock market, I was the worst one in the class," Goatley said. Finally, when filling out his schedule, his advisor suggested turf man- agement. Goatley agreed, and his Dad thought he was crazy. But he had finally found his calling, and Goatley knew it on the first day of class with A.J. Powell Jr., Ph.D. "I quickly became a convert," he said. His first class as a turf management student ended up leaving a last- ing effect on Goatley. Powell Jr. became one of Goatley's most admired and revered mentors who inspired him to go into academia. In 1983, Goatley earned a degree in turf management but had only spent one year studying the field and had no pertinent experience. So, on Powell's recommendation, he stayed on to pursue a graduate degree. Once that feat was accomplished in 1986, Goatley once again asked himself, "Now what?" And once again, it was Powell's encouragement that sent him to earn a doctorate at Virginia Tech University. Powell knew the faculty at Virginia Tech and helped Goatley secure an assistant- ship. He even asked a couple he knew from his own days spent as a stu- dent at Virginia Tech to put up an incoming doctoral student for a night or so until he could find a place to live. The couple, Hillard and Irene Collier, invited Goatley to stay with them as long as he needed. He rented a basement room with a kitchenette from them for $50 a month (including utilities) while he earned his doc- torate degree. And he also happened to fall in love with the university and town and ultimately, his future wife, Lisa, who was from Blacksburg. "It's one of the prettiest campuses with a certain type of limestone that's mined in this area," Goatley said. "I fell in love with the campus, which is in mountains of southwest Virginia. Dr. Powell said I should go here, and I thought, 'Well that sounds like the place for me.'" At Virginia Tech, Goatley found another mentor whose style differed greatly from Powell's, but who had just as big as an impact. "(Professor Dick Schmidt) had a very dry science of humor, a good one," he said. "He was a great resource for me as a Ph.D. student. He trained me to become an independent thinker and to pursue ideas and research on my own. I knew early on in my Ph.D. program that I wanted to become an academic and do research and teach someday." TEACHING MOMENT With a doctorate as well as a fiancée in tow, Goatley next headed to Starkville to start his first real job at Mississippi State as a faculty mem- ber. Lisa initially balked at the thought of Mississippi, but it turned out to be a life-changing career stop. "I went for the interview, and MSU turned out to be the absolutely perfect place for us as newlyweds and for me as a young faculty mem- ber," Goatley said. "The position was very heavily involved in teaching and research, and teaching was the primary focus. I really had very little training as far as formal teaching goes, but Dr. Powell and Dr. Schmidt had served as the models for the kind of teacher I hoped to be." Cue the third mentor figure in Goatley's life—Jeff Krans, Ph.D., the professor at MSU who oversaw the school's turfgrass program, which was growing so rapidly they needed an additional faculty member to help. 12 SportsTurf | February 2012 "With Krans' direction, that program at MSU exploded to more than 100 undergraduate majors," Goatley said. "Jeff was the trendsetter that saw where a program needed to go before many others." Krans also brought in Don Waddington, Ph.D., a retired professor from Penn State, to teach a special sports turf class for the students. "I suspect I learned more sitting in on Don's class than did our students," Goatley said. During his 16 years at MSU, Goatley got married and started a fam- ily with his wife, taught hundreds of students as they pursued careers in turf, and first learned how he could give back to the community from a sports turf perspective. Through a student project administered by Krans and his church, Goatley and the MSU turf club were called out to East Oktibbeha, a small county high school whose football field was in such poor condi- tion, infested with fire ants, hard as a rock, and covered in weeds, that the team played its homecoming game on its opponent's field. The jani- tor at the school (where NFL great Jerry Rice played football as a youth) doubled as its field manager and used diesel fuel to create yardage and sidelines. The turf club and Goatley put in many volunteer hours, got compa- nies to donate chemicals and fertilizer and arranged for the team's logo to be painted in the center of the field (a touch that was never a considera- tion for the kids) as they worked to get the field back into shape for the beleaguered squad. On hand for the first game of the season on the spruced up field, "The students and I were as proud as the players," Goatley said. "The school was so appreciative." A few weeks later when Goatley returned to the field to see how it was holding up, he was mortified to see more dead lines in the grass. The janitor assured him to not worry, that he was no longer using diesel fuel to mark the lines. "Instead, he told me that they had found a wonderful new product called Roundup that took its place," Goatley said. "I imme- diately realized to never take anything for granted." In 2004, Goatley and his family got a chance to move back to their beloved Blacksburg, but it meant a change in pace. His job shifted from teaching and advising to serving as an extension specialist at Virginia Tech, a job that requires more travel as he conducts educational pro- gramming across the state. "I take what my colleagues discover in their research programs and relay it to Virginia's turfgrass industry folks," Goatley said. He still practices what he calls "old school extension." "With digital media, and Twitter and Facebook, times have really changed in how information is delivered," he said. "I'm trying to adapt, but I'm not there yet. I really believe in shaking hands and meeting face- to-face. That's what's really neat about sports turf managers—how freely everyone shares their information. It doesn't matter what level you are, there are no egos." While he's content in his current position, he admits there are days he misses being a teacher. "The interaction I had teaching and advising was the part that I en- joyed the most," he said. "I wanted the respect of the kids, but for them to feel comfortable and learn a lot." No one has to guess Goatley's effectiveness and success as an instruc- tor; you can let the awards and accolades do the talking. Goatley re- ceived the MSU Undergraduate Advising Award in 2001, MSU College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award in 2002, and the National Academic Advising Association's Advising Award in 2002. In addition, he received STMA's William H. Daniels Founders Award in 2008 and the Virginia Tech Alumni Association's Excellence in Extension Award in 2011. Goatley's background in academia is nearly unique to the post of www.sportsturfonline.com