F.O.Y. Field of the Year
Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, FL
Level of Submission: Professional Category of Submission: Baseball Head Sports Turf Manager: Jordan
Treadway Title: Director of Grounds Education: Bachelor's Degree Field of Study: Agronomy & Turf
Management Work History: Student member of Misissippi State sports turf staff, intern-
CHALLENGES The field is home to the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Mar-
lins as well their Advanced A affiliates. One of the challenges that we face is the amount of use the field endures each year. Our field is the main attraction for a variety of events in the community. In addition to the 176 pro games, the field is used for more than 100 additional events as well. These included fantasy camps, Little League, high school, and college games, adult tournaments, cor- porate dinners, ticket holder receptions, musical performances, charity softball games, scout sleepovers, movie nights, boxing, a football game, a wedding, an Easter egg hunt, and a 10K marathon finish line.
38 SportsTurf | June 2012
ship at Roger Dean Stadium, Grounds Crew Assistant at Corpus Christi Hooks, Assistant Director of Ground at Roger Dean Stadium for 3 years, and Director of Grounds since June 2010. Full Time Staff: Matt Eggerman and
Matt Dierdorff Students, interns, seasonal, part- time staff: Drew Wolcott, Phil Bathalon, Tyler Potter, and Tim Gambrell
Original construction: 1998 Turfgrass variety: Celebration bermudagrass Overseeding: Overseed with Lesco
Double Eagle Perennial Rye Grass at 12#/1000 in early December Drainage system: Subsurface; 4-inch tiles on 20 foot centers
Hosting these events requires a great deal of communication
between the stadium staff and the tenants of the field. Making or- ganizers of events aware of the field's limitations in advance, helps to prevent potential problems from occurring and ultimately pro- tects the integrity of the field. The main test faced by our grounds crew is finding ample
time during our seasons to perform required periodic mainte- nance. For example, the Celebration bermudagrass that we use is very well suited for our high use and climate in South Florida; however, it requires frequent vertical mowing due to its abundant lateral growth. With a game virtually every day, there is little time to perform these tasks as often as needed. The only open dates we
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