SportsTurf

October 2016

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.

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FROM THE SIDELINES EPG Media & Specialty Information 10405 6th Ave. N., Ste 210 Plymouth, MN 55441 The Official Publication Of The Sports Turf Managers Association SALES REPRESENTATIVES Chris Pelikan Senior Account Manager - East Phone: (763) 383-4408 cpelikan@epgmediallc.com Peggy Tupper Senior Account Manager - Midwest Phone: (763) 383-4429 ptupper@epgmediallc.com Leslie Palmer Senior Account Manager - West Phone: (763) 383-4460 lpalmer@epgmediallc.com EDITORIAL Group Publisher: David Voll Editorial Director: Eric Schroder Technical Editor: Dr. Joey Young Art Director: Jean Blackmer Production Manager: Karen Kalinyak SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES Phone: (847) 513-6025 Fax: (763) 383-4497 customerservice@epgmediallc.com REPRINTS Robin Cooper rcooper@epgmediallc.com GROUP PUBLISHER David Voll dvoll@epgmediallc.com DIRECT MAIL LIST SALES MeritDirect, Jim Scova Phone: (914) 368-1012 jscova@MeritDirect.com 6 SportsTurf | October 2016 www.sportsturfonline.com Eric Schroder Editorial Director Eschroder@epgmediallc.com 763-383-4458 T he sudden and tragic news of the passing of Darian Daily, head groundskeeper for the Cincinnati Bengals, hit me particularly hard. Darian, as well as his wife, Carole, have been great friends of this magazine for years. Along with everyone who knew him, I experienced his generosity, good humor, and willingness to help others. Despite his schedule Darian was never too busy to respond to my questions or requests to share his expertise with our readers, his friends and peers. When he hosted an STMA Regional Conference in the Queen City several years ago, Darian took time to talk to me for 10 minutes when there were probably a dozen other things he could have been doing. At the national STMA Conferences, he'd stop and ask me how things were going and seemed to always have an entourage of younger turf managers following him around. While the shock many of us felt when hearing the news will eventually go away, the example Darian set of how to combine kindness, professionalism, and fun will never be forgotten. Please go to https://www.gofundme. com/2m9n25kv if you would like to make a contribution to Darian and Carole's children's future. May they come to understand what a difference their father made in so many lives. HIRE A PROFESSIONAL Another late friend of the magazine, former group publisher Bob Earley, long ago told me the story of how his then-middle school son answered a math word question by writing on his test paper, "Hire a professional." That story came to mind after the disaster in Canton, OH in August when the National Football League cancelled the Hall of Fame game because the field was deemed unsafe shortly before the scheduled kickoff. From what I could learn about the situation from sources that didn't want to be named, the main takeaway was that no professional sports turf manager was involved in the decision making of how, with what, and when to paint the midfield logo. My understanding is a competent crew worked to prepare the field and do initial painting, and following their work the field was certified as playable, but that they were gone by the time NFL personnel started making decisions, including allowing someone to try and groom the synthetic surface with a street sweeper! According to a memo sent from the NFL office to league owners, the league, going forward, will ask the NFL-NFLPA Field Surface Safety and Performance Committee to "study and advise on: injury prevention; improved field surface testing methods; and the adoption of tools and techniques to evaluate and improve field surface performance/playability." The league does deserve credit for making what must have been a painful decision to cancel the game but let's hope the lesson takes: if you want a job done right, hire a professional. DARIAN DAILY, RIP

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