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
warning track cutout sizes. We intentionally offset the mound radius and made it larger in Omaha to minimize wear for our extra high school games. It may not be a cure all, but every little bit certainly helps. Irrigation design is also a key impor- tance. Most designers submit a neutral lay- out because everyone has different preferences. Head layout is extremely im- portant especially on your infield grass and foul territory because a couple feet from center either way and your cutouts will al- ways be wet. I also try to have the installer keep heads away from player locations to re- duce a bad hop but also for maintenance. If I'm resodding or aerifying behind where the second baseman or shortstop plays, I don't want a head right there. I prefer to manufacture or fix anything we can in-house which means we have a lot of tools and the same goes with our irriga- tion. Our remote controller for the system is such a time saver for locating heads (espe- cially before aerifying) and running cycles without having to go to our controller lo- cated in center field. Along with that are our infield skin zones; I know the coverage is not always perfect, but it has benefits. We use it when the team is out of town to keep moisture in the skin, since the wind can wreak havoc if it dries it out, as well as be- tween lower level games. High school dou- bleheaders are tightly scheduled and sometimes the only way to water is to turn on those zones for a minute or two; it's bet- ter than nothing. Another thing is to know your material specs put in place by the field designer and to be approachable. Get a feel for how things should look and be installed and go from there. The better relationship you have with everyone involved from the general contractor to every subcontractor, the easier they will be to approach and talk about changes, but keep in mind the domino ef- fect. It's hard to change one thing, whether it's an elevation, home plate diameter or pipe size, without that changing other things down the line, so talk it out with everyone. Understanding what materials are being installed helps with the design but also the maintenance. My track material on both fields was a higher maintenance crushed lava material. As I came to find out, that meant www.stma.org SportsTurf 23 Taking pictures is the single best way to document the install and have some sense of assurance on what's below once it's covered up with sod and clay. I don't love to read, let alone take the time to write, but taking pictures tells a much greater story and says everything without saying anything. extra watering and constant grading and dragging to maintain the negative slope for drainage. I understood that early enough and was able to purchase a large enough box grader and laser setup that not only allowed me to constantly work the warning track, but also allowed me to grade my infield skin whenever I needed. This multi-use need helped me sell the purchase to management. Taking pictures is the single best way to document the install and have some sense of assurance on what's below once it's covered up with sod and clay. I don't love to read, let alone take the time to write, but taking pic- tures tells a much greater story and says everything without saying anything. It al- lows you to look back, compare and see many things that may have been missed on installation such as buried valve and drain boxes, head locations, even how the field drained before the sod was laid. All contractors will tell you "We want you to be happy" or "If you're happy, then we did our job", so make sure you are happy. The potential problem with that is being too nice. Don't settle for "that will do" or "I'll fix it later", it will come back to bite you. I did a terrible job about this on my first field and a little better job (emphasis on little) the second go around. Don't make more work for yourself that you won't have time to perform in the spring. It's under-