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 Kentucky-grown Mike Goatley brings mix of academia and farm upbringing to STMA Goatley Jr. was sure of two things: He wasn't interested in becoming a farmer, and he thought golf was the "silliest sport on the planet." G Fast forward several years and these cer- tainties sure seem foretelling, considering that he would go on to help broaden the field of sports turf management as a poten- tial career for his youngsters at Mississippi State University (MSU), Starkville, while he worked as a professor of plant and soil sci- ences there from 1988 to 2004. Fast forward even further to present day, and Goatley, 50, professor of crop and soil environmental sciences and extension turf- grass specialist at Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, is now president of the associa- tion dedicated to sports turf managers. Last month he moved into the top leadership po- sition of the Lawrence, KS-based Sports Turf Managers Association. LIFE ON THE HOMESTEAD Silly or not, golf is the sport that gave Goatley his first real paying gig in high school, at the course where Abraham Lin- coln's parents wed—Lincoln Homestead State Park Golf Course, near his small home- 8 SportsTurf | February 2012 town of Springfield, KY. Having first hopped onto a tractor to load tobacco around age 6 or 7, he had all the necessary job requirements. "I was hired because I knew how to drive tractors and operate mowers in a reasonably responsible and safe manner," Goatley said. "I had no idea about turf management. It was just what you did as a farm kid. You couldn't wait to drive tractors." Golf didn't strike Goatley as anything more than a summer job, but he hadn't a clue what to do next. Still, he knew he would attend college because his parents in- sisted, having never had the opportunity themselves. So to get his feet on the ground, he en- rolled for one year at St. Catherine Junior College in his hometown. After getting some elective coursework out of the way, he trans- ferred to the University of Kentucky with the intent of going into computer science. "That was when we used punch cards to write programs," Goatley said. "A single mis- ROWING UP ON A CATTLE AND TOBACCO FARM IN CENTRAL KENTUCKY in the 1960s, a young Michael Three (potentially) little-known Goatley facts: ➲ ➲ ➲ It'd be hard to know Goatley and not know of his undying love for all things Kentucky basketball. In addition to UK hoops, he was known to dole out brownie points to students who knew about his other favorite "sport," professional wrestling. Goatley has been married for 22 years to his wife, Lisa, a licensed professional counselor who's taught some programs for STMA. The couple has two children: Rachel, a freshman at Virginia Tech; and Adam, a sopho- more at Blacksburg High School. "Neither one wants to have anything to do with turfgrass management," Goatley said. In the late 1990s, Goatley wrote a book (with co-authors Jim Puhalla and Jeff Krans) called "Sports Fields: Design, Construc- tion & Maintenance." It's exactly what it sounds like, said Goatley: A "user-friendly, easy- to-read sports turf book that covers the de- sign and goes up all the way to installation and maintenance." The experience gave him the confidence to volunteer for leadership po- sitions through STMA. www.sportsturfonline.com