"YOU DON'T WANT THE MOUND TOOBRITTLE OR ON THE OTHER HAND,SLIPPERY," SAYS HEATHER. "YOU

WANT YOUR CLEAT TO GO INAND COME BACK OUT."

University. Upon graduating from !\ISU in1993 with a degree in Sports and CommercialTurf, Heather look her first major step towardmaking a name for herself and opening thedoor for other women interested in profes-sional grounds keeping.

Heather credits many people with her suc-cess, including her MSU advisor, DavidGilstrap, who helped her get her first proies-sinnal job for the Toronto BlueJays. She laterbecame head groundskeeper for the \'\TestMichigan Whitt> Caps, where she IMd theopportunity to experiment with creative mow-ing pauerns, some of which are highlighted ;.11a book published by Boston Red SoxI:,'l."oundskeeper David Mellor.

In 1999, Frank Feneck, head groundskeep-er for the Detroit Tigers announced his retire-ment, and Heather received a call to interviewfor the job. "It was an honor to be consideredfor tile position," said Heather. "I am follow-

ing in we rOol~tep~ of a great professionalgrouudskeeper."

Being the first female in a male dominatedindustry hasn't intimidated Heather. "There isa great network of people 1 work with," saysHeather. "\Ve are a close knit community andeveryone helps everyone. 1don't feel treatedany differently from my collea6'l.les."

During the season, Heather and her crewwork an average of oS hours a week. Thisleaves lillie time for personal recreation, espe-cially since days begin at gam and end close to

midnight. "Preparatiun of the field atComenca Park begins in March and some-times doesn't end until early December. Thisyear was especially long considering the teamplayed in the world Series," says Heather.

Regular field maintenance includes mow-ing, painting the foul lines, and dragging the:warning track. Heather uses Pro Mound in the:pitcher's mound and batter's boxes and has

Heather, second from left, and her crew at the 2005 All-Star Game.

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I!ACILITY & OPERATIONSdeveloped her own spe-cial "toe test," to monitorthe moisture in theseareas. "You don't want themound too brittle or onthe other hand, slippery,"says Heather. "You wantyour deat to go in andcome back out."

To keep on lap of hergame, Heather regularlyconsults with many of theindustry's most celebratedexperts. She is grateful to

George Toma, NFL turfconsultant and Ed Mangan,NFL Field Director, formentoring her and allow-ing her the opportunity toserve as pari of the groundscrew for the Super Bowl,which she has been paltid-pating in for several years,

Heather has also workedwith Roger Bossard, headgroundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox.Bossard led the reconstruction of the DetroitTigers Ccmenca Park that was completed in2000. "While working on the field reconstructionwith Heather, Roger stressed the importance ofclay on the infield and offered maintenance tipsfor keeping the ground firm but soft.

"Roger taught me how to work the infielddirt and the importance of'getting to know theskin." says Heather. "By hand drag/,ring thenail and screen drags, you can feel the infieldmoisture, the texture of conditioner, and thethickness of the conditioner. That is oneimportant tip that Roger passed on to me."

"Roger also is adamant about the impor-tance of particle size in your soil conditioner.He uses Pro's Choice Pro Blend which r alsouse on my field," says Heather.

Just as others have mentored Heather, shar-ing and passing along knowledge is importantin this business. "I've received a lot of supportfrom my peers," says Heather. She, in turn,shares what she has learned with her groundscrew and numerous interns who come herway. "1 have received lots of support and wantto help others corning up in this industry."

"I HAVE RECEIVED LOTS OFSUPPORT AND WANT TO

HELP OTHERS COMING UPIN THIS INDUSTRY."

"While Heather holds the responsibility ofoverseeing all field maintenance at ComericaPark, she does not do it alone. She works witha four-member full-time seasonal groundscrew, her assistant Gail DeGennaro, CharlesMcGee, Ryan Silva, and Riley Paquet. Herteam also includes two full-time seasonalinterns, Noel Brusius and Mart Gerhardt. Inaddition to her full time staff, Heather workswith an event staff of aboul 20 .

The 2006 \Vorld Series was an exciting timefor Heather, as this was her first World Seriesas head ground~keeper for a competing team.~We didn't do anylhing especially different tothe field for the world Series," says Heather."However, the weather during the games wasquite rainy. The field had to he covered moreoften and monitored for moisture. Vole had a lotof Pro's Choice soil conditioner on hand."

"\Ve topdressed the field prior to one of thegame~ to control the moisture," says Heather."Between games we made sure things weremoist but not slippery, we really had to moni-tor this because of the rain."

"" ....'ben we mow during the months ofSeptember and October, we collect our clippings

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FACILITY & OPERATIONS

because they take longer to decompose during the fall season.Removing them helps to prevent the slime layer that can add to slick-ness of the turf," said Heather.

Now that the 2006 baseball season is over and the cold has settledin, Heather is looking forward to once again participating in the SuperBowl as part of the grounds crew. She also can't wait to relax for awhile and hit the slopes for a few weeks with friends. But as Heatherreminds; grounds keeping is year round work. "Over the winter, I'llcatch up on paperwork and work the Super Bowl inJanuary." It's thenback to work in March preparing for what she hopes is another win-ning season for her home team.

So, whether you consider Heather a Turf Goddess or not, one thingis undeniable, she has earned her place among the few distinguishedMajor League Baseball professional groundskeepers. Heather's com-mitment to excellence and professionalism in the industry can be wit-nessed every time you watch the Detroit Tigers playa home game, andfor Heather there is nothing better than doing what she loves.

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FACILITY & OPERATIONS

Daytona's turfis part of the show

By Eric Schroder

SamNewpher's career in turf management started traditionally,as an assistant groundskeeper at Atlanta's old Fulton CountyStadium back in the 1970's. He eventually was named thehead guy and spent 8 years maintaining the field for the

Braves and Falcons. He moved to golf for 6 years, and then took the jobhe's now had for 12 years, superintendent of grounds and turf at theDaytona International Speedway (DIS). NASCAR dads, eat your heartsout!

"My maintenance schedule isn't that much different here than it wasfor baseball," he says, "except we keep the turf a bit more firm. Safety is

www.sportsturfmanager.org

still the major goal. When you have a 3,500-pound racecar sliding acrossyour turf, you're more worried about the driver than you are the turf."

Newpher is responsible for 550 acres of turf at the world's mostfamous speedway and has a crew of five to assist. There's another "greenteam" responsible for trees and other landscaping; Newpher is strictly thegrass man. Newpher says his boss, VP of Operations Dick Hahne, wantsto make sure when the Daytona 500 runs in February that "the grass isbright green, the flowers look perfect, and the tropical nature of the trackis complete," so that fans watching up north say to themselves, "Let's goto the race next year!"

SportsTurf 27

f John Mascaro's Photo Ouiz •Can you identify

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Turfgrass Area: Athletic Field

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IT'S AN IIUNWRITTEN RULE" ACCORDING TONEWPHER THAT ONLY THE DAYTONA 500 WINNER

CAN SPIN OUT ON THE TURF LOGO IN THE TRI-OVAL.

"By the day of the Daytona 500(the "Super Bowl" of NASCAR)only 40 acres of those 550 are notbeing used for something," saysNewpher. "Fans take over about10 acres, for example, and thedrivers' RV park is another fouracres, and it goes on and on. Thatone day we need to look our bestand often, the turf looks its worst,

at least to the crew and me. People are allover it that week so we irri-gate as little as possible."

The most famous, and visible, section of Newpher's turf is 5 acresknown as the "tri-oval" that sports the huge Daytona logo. This logo is200 feet long, with 34-foot high letters and an apex of 68 feet at the topof the flag in the middle. It's this tri-oval, so close to the track itself, thatperiodically gets an out of control race car skidding across it. (Newpherhas an acre of replacement turf growing near the track.)

"We used to string out the logo ourselves until our 50th anniversary(in 1998)," says Newpher. "To celebrate the anniversary we changed thelogo and added more logos to the tri-oval, as well to the backstretch andTum =#=3,and it became a lot more work. Now Missouri Turf Paint does

28 January 2007

all the logos because they are so complicated and time-consuming.They bring a 200-foot stencil for the main logo and work exclusivelyat night since it's way too dangerous to be that close to the track whenit's 'hot'."

It's an "unwritten rule" according to Newpher that only theDaytona 500 winner can spin out on the turf logo in the tri-oval. Hesays his greatest memory of the great race was when the late DaleEarnhardt, driver of the black =#=3Chevy and known as "TheIntimidator," finally won Daytona after 20 tries and proceeded to spindoughnuts on top of the logo's flag. "The fans went absolutely nuts,and after the race many of them grabbed some sprigs that had chippedup from his doughnuts," says Newpher.

Another memorable moment came 3 years later, during the Pepsi400 race in July. Earlier that year, Earnhardt had passed away after hit-ting the wall at Daytona. This day, his son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., tookthe lead in the backstretch near the end of the race. "I was in the pitarea and you could actually hear the crowd's roar over the noise fromthe racecars," Newpher recalls.

By the way, if you're thinking you'd be angry if a millionaire race cardriver tore up your perfect turf on purpose, you need to know that imme-diately following the Daytona 500, Newpher every year begins tearingout the turf on the tri-oval for a motocross event the next week. •

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FACILITY & OPERATIONS

Kris Harris is the Sports Turf Manager for theGeorgia Tech Yellow Jackets

eorgia. Tech Sport Turf ManagerKris Harris isn't bothered 100much about what other peoplethink. "I don't mind being thevillage idiot for it few months

out of the year, All I care about is managingmy football and baseball fields for those threeor four months when it COUIlls," Harris says.According to most agronomists, nothing Kr-isdoes should work.

WHAT'S .A

TEns AGGIEDOIl6 WITHUtiA TUBI'OlIOS61 TEeH FIELD?

"For football r go a 10v'[as I can go," he says,"We start out in May at 1!2"-7/1G" and I godown from there. Tkeep my baseball field a lit-tle higher. "Ve mow it at 3/4" most of the yearand lake it all down to 112" after the season."

Most sports field managers rarely mowtheir bennudagrass lower than an inch, andnever lower than a half-inch. Kris also over-seeds very heavily. "1 may have 50 to 70pOllnds/lOOO of rye out by the end of the sea-

30 January 2007

son on the football field here at Bobby DoddStadium. And usually about JOibs/lOOO onmy baseball field. They have to be perfect allseason long, not all year long."

The administration and Georgia Techcoaches want the field to be perfect for thespring practice game, lou. "So far I've beenreal lucky there," say~ Harris. "I've never hadto paint the football field green for a game yet.To keep my fields looking good J know I have

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