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/765909
38 SportsTurf | January 2017 www.sportsturfonline.com FACILITY & OPERATIONS even longer than usual. And it might affect our practices, too," he says. "For example when we verticut, sweep and mow, you can't do it any faster but with more people you can certainly overlap the tasks. "My boss wants me to leave early when I can but the work still has to get done; if not we won't be getting the recognition for having a great fi eld." While he enjoys living and working in Pensacola, Sayre does occasionally wonder what other opportunities might be presented. "I don't necessarily aspire to work in Major League Baseball but I'm not against it either," he says. "I have a wife and young daughter and if an opportunity comes along, we'll have to consider it. But Pensacola is a great place to be and I'm not seeking anything. I'm thankful to be here." NEXT SEASON "Ours is now a football fi eld and there are a few more games to be played before we'll know what we'll be facing heading into this spring," he says. "We'll have to renovate some areas, and most likely will re-sod where the bleachers were. And after we remove the sod from the infi eld dirt areas, I want to continue to improve our mix. We started with a local mix that was naturally high in sand, and it didn't hold together as well as I would have liked. So each year I've been incorporating more and more clay into the sand. "I would like to have a good standard mix and start fresh; if you have a good one out of the gate it's easier to be consistent year to year than when you mix it in every year," Sayre says. "One day I'd like to do a full renovation, perhaps if there's no more football. I would like to re-grade and add some drainage; we know now from experience where we'd put more drains." Sayre made sure to give a shout out to his crew. "You don't win awards by yourself; it's a collective effort," he says. "Wes Baldwin, my assistant, does a great job. Head groundskeepers can have great ideas but your crew needs to buy into what you're doing to make it happen. That's why it's so important to recognize all the crew, including the front offi ce people that help pull tarps. It's hard work. "The Southern League should call their award "Field of the Year" rather than "Groundskeeper of the Year," Sayre says. We've reinvented the classic groundskeeper's tamp. The SweetSpot is a more adaptable tool that delivers an efficient strike every time. This is the best tamp you'll ever buy. 800-747-5985 BeaconAthletics.com The tamp reinvented. B E A C O N ' S L AT E S T I N N OVAT I V E S O L U T I O N … PATENT PENDING n Interchangeable tamp heads n Articulating tamp head n Reduces or eliminates vibration F O R F A C I L I T I E S . F I E L D M A I N T E N A N C E . G A M E - P R A C T I C E E Q U I P M E N T www.billygoat.com Team up with Billy Goat to Beautify Your Sports Turf! Versatile Towable Aerator for deep hard soil aeration • Flexible aeration widths at 36", 48" or 60" • Foldable wings raise & lower for desired widths • 80 hardened steel tines • Manual lift raises & lowers tines with ease • Mounts to a standard tow bar or category 1, 3-point hitch • Tines swivel when mounted to 3-point hitch 440 lB 4 AcreS/hour! 30" hydro-Drive, hydro-Tine • Perfect for landscaped turf areas • AE1300H 30" • • " You don't win awards by yourself; it's a collective effort "