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/775572
FIELD OF THE YEAR Category of Submission: Schools/Parks Softball Sports Turf Manager: Ken Edwards, CSFM (Ken recently retired and was replaced by his son, Keair; we hear from both in the interview on following pages) Ken's experience: My career in sports turf management started in the US Army. When not training for combat I was assigned duties as the Base Recreation Specialist responsible for scheduling and maintaining ball fi elds and golf courses. After military retirement I took a job as a recreation specialist at Gulfport Navy Base and continued to maintain sports fi elds and the golf course while pursuing a degree in Turf Management. I later got involved in the sports fi eld construction and renovation business that ultimately led me to my current position as superintendent/turf manager. Outside of my daily operations I make time to volunteer as grounds keeper for the local high school. I am also actively involved in turf association activities and have served as president of both the Mississippi Turf Association and the Deep South Turf Expo. I served as chairman of the STMA scholarship committee for 3 years and became the fi rst Certifi ed Sports Field Manager in the state of Mississippi, in 2005. Full-time staff: Doug Albritton, Mark Quintero, Dennis Earl, Craig Johnson, DeAmon Spivey, and Tyler Wales Original construction: 2000 Rootzone: 80% sand, 20% other (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss) Turfgrass variety: Certifi ed Tifway 419 bermudagrass Overseed: Field was overseeded in the early years after construction. We really don't go totally dormant in the Deep South and don't host major events from November through February. The bermudagrass starts to green up in mid-March so we stopped overseeding. We also saved roughly $22,000 in budget by not overseeding the complex. Drainage: Our goal for drainage was to create a system that could percolate rainwater at a rate of at least 8 inches per hour. To achieve that, we decided on a combination of surface and sub- surface drainage. The sub-surface drainage is a trench system consisting of 1,387 linear feet of 4 inch corrugated high-density polyethylene (HDPE perforated sock pipe. The pipe is laid in trenches, encased in washed pea gravel spaced 25 feet apart and positioned on a line from the center of the fi eld going left and right beyond the foul lines. There the pipe attaches to 340 linear feet of 6 and 8-inch collector pipes that move water off the site. The root zone is a USGA specifi ed 80/20 sand peat mixture that is capable of percolating water at a rate of 9.5 inches an hour. The fi nish grade was cone lasered to a 1.5% slope. Drainage is excellent and was installed in the entire fi eld, infi eld and outfi eld. One disadvantage is that the infi eld can dry out very fast. To this date we have had a few rain delays but never canceled a game because of rainy conditions. Original construction: Original construction: 2000 Category of Submission: Category of Submission: Schools/Parks Softball Schools/Parks Softball Sports Turf Manager: Sports Turf Manager: Ken Edwards, CSFM (Ken Ken Edwards, CSFM (Ken recently retired and was replaced by his son, Keair; we hear recently retired and was replaced by his son, Keair; we hear from both in the interview on following pages) from both in the interview on following pages) (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss) construction. We really don't go totally dormant in the Deep South and don't host major events from November through February. The bermudagrass starts to green up in mid-March FIELD OF THE YEAR www.stma.org February 2017 | SportsTurf 39