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Contents April 2006 VOLUME 15/ NUMBER 84
34
FEATURES 39Field Science8 Field management in the transition zone22 Restoring synthetic surfaces after floods
30 What drives you nuts? Turi managers respond!
33 Kyle Waters sees it all at Horne Depot Center
Field of the Year34 Roser going out on top after 35 years in
Rockford
39 Tribute to Dr. Kent Kurtz, by Mike Schiller.CSFM
25th Anniversary42 What the STMA has meant for Mike Andresen.
CSFM
4 April 2006
DEPARTMENTSFrom the Sidelines .6
.7
19
.44
.46
.49
5254
STMA President's Message
John Mascaro's Photo Quiz
STMA In Action .....
STMA Chapter News.
Marketplace ....
Online Education
Q&A .
Steve Roser (witli grandson on his lap), Rockford (IL)Park District, won the 2005 STMA Field of the Year
Award for High School Soccer.
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From the Sidelines
"Doc" Kurtz. 1940-2006
ERIC SCHRODEREditor
717-805-4197P.O. Box 280,
Dauphin. PA 17018
6 April 2006
Kent "Doc" Kurtz died in February after a short and coura-geous battle with cancer. Dr. Kurtz was instrumental indeveloping what is today the Sports Turf ManagersAssociation, and served as Official Historian of STMA. He
was employed as professor of Ornamental Horticulture by California StatePolytechnic University at Pomona, CA for 36 years and consulted on manysports fields and golf courses around the world. Mike Schiller, CSFM, for-mer president of STMA and a close friend of Dr, Kurtz, writes a wonderfultribute to his mentor in this issue (p. 39).
Mike says if you wish to donate to a memorial in Doc's honor, pleasecontact the College of Agriculture, Cal Poly Pomona, 3801 West TempleAvenue, Building 2, Pomona, CA 91768, 888-232·9724 oragrtcurtureecsuoomona.eou.
Renowned turrgrass breeder Dr. Wayne Hanna recently was awardedthe prestigious Turfgrass Producers International (TPI) Honorary MemberAward. which is infrequently presented only to those who have "improvedthe turtgrass industry in a significant way."
His TifSport bermudagrass, released in 1996, has become the grassof choice for golf course fairways. tees and roughs. Dr. Hanna has anoth-er legacy, perhaps just as important as his breeding work, He has alwaysmade sure his grasses are grown, inspected. and sold under a rigorousset of rules and guidelines designed to promote on-going purity and uni-formity. Dr. Hanna is currently working diligently on a new shade-toleranttermuoegress, which he hopes to release in 2007.
Grass Stains Productions now has available all of their music videos,starting with "Like a Rock" from 2003 through this year's "Summon theHero." All proceeds above costs benefit the SAFE Foundation. Availablefor $8 each or ali four for $25. If you have not seen these videos theywonderfully capture the challenges. triumphs, and professionalism of turfmanagers everywhere. Contact Steve LeGros at 603-828-2586 orsteve.iegroseunh.eou.
Correction Dept. In our March issue on page 55 we ran the same cap-tion twice in error. The photo at lower left is actually of Floyd Perry accept-ing the Dick Ericson Award from STMA president Mike Trigg, CSFM.Congratulations. Floyd, and sorry for the mistake.
In January we tagged another mower "ZTR" which is a registered trade-mark of Dixon. We learned something and apologize for the error.
SportsTurf760 Market Street, Suite 432
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The Official Publication Of The Sports TurfManagers Association
PRESIDENT Mike Trigg, CSFMPAST PRESIDENT Bob Campbell, CSFM
PRESIDENT ELECT Mike Andresen, CSFMCOMMERCIAL V,P. Victoria Wallace
SECRETARY Abby McNeal. CSFMTREASURER Chris Calcaterra, CSFMSTMA BOARD MEMBERS Tra DUbois,
Darlan Dally, Dr. Dave Minner,Lance Tibbetts, George C. Trivett, CSFM,
Jay Warnick, CSFMCHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Kim Heck
STMA Office805 New Hampshire Suite E
Lawrence, Ks 66044Phone 800-323-3875 Fax 800-366-0391Email [email protected]
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EditorialGROUP PUBLISHER Steve Brackett
EDITOR Eric SchroderGRAPHIC DESIGNER Mira Coburn
STMA EditorialCommunications Committee
Mike Andresen, CSFM, Iowa StateChris Calcaterra, CSFM, Peoria, A2Jeff Fowler, Penn S1ate EX1ension
Dr. Dave Minner. Iowa State8<Jyd Montgomery. CSFM, Sylvania, Oh
Pam She'mit, Ohio State Extension
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President's MessageSTMA chapters
fulfill many needs
MIKE TRIGGCSFM
Ihad the privilege last month to attend the New EnglandRegional Turfgrass Conference & Trade Show in Providence,RI. The New England Sports Turf Managers Association,NESTMA, is one of the organizations involved in developingthe Conference. NESTMA President Dave Pinsonneault told
me how the chapter also works diligently to provide quality workshopsand field days for its members throughout the year. Their members,like all STMA chapter members, also take advantage of networkingthrough the chapter to learn and share from each other and fromother experts.
Our affiliated chapters can use $500 in Chapter DevelopmentFunds available from the STMA. The money can be used for bringing ineducational speakers, purchasing computer equipment, newsletterassistance, website design/hosting, even insurance for event coverage(which could cost a chapter $2,000 to $3,000 if purchased separate-ly), Being an STMA affiliated chapter provides an opportunity for chap-ters to promote this resource/relationship with STMA to draw newmembers and reengage those who have let their memberships lapse.
Chapters truly are the lifeblood of a national organization. In fact, ifforced to choose between belonging to a national organization or alocal one, the local choice will win 100% of the time. National organiza-tions, however, have many resources to give to local chapters. STMAalso provides 1) a global view of the profession that helps shape pro-grams and services; 2) new opportunities for partnerships that willbenefit local chapters and individual members: and 3) and access to astrong network of peers in other regions.
STMA chapters offer their members so much, like awards, scholar-ships, and numerous other membership benefits. Earlier this year,KAFMO, the Keystone Athletic Field Managers Organization. launched anew website that highlights their calendar of annual events with pic-tures of members at seminars and field days, and more. All membersreceive a quarterly newsletter and a manual that includes technicalmaterials, vendor resource guide and membership roster.
I invite you to check out the STMA Chapter News in this month'smagazine (page 46). Many chapters are either conducting or planningworkshops and field days throughout 2006. If you are not a chaptermember, I encourage you to find out more about what a local STMAcan offer.
I want to thank all the chapters for their continued dedication andcommitment to STMA. The Board wants chapter members to beadvised and informed, to be involved and recognized, and to know thatthis Association is here to benefit you,
SportsTurf 7
FIELD SCIENCE
Field lIIanagelllentthe•In
transition zoneBy Dr. Art Bruneau and Casey Reynolds
enaging athletic fields in the Transition Zone of thesoutheastern United States can often be the bestand worst of both worlds. Hot, humid summers withplenty of sun can provide an ample growing seasonfor warm-season species like berrruoegress. At the
same time, these summers eliminate any chance of being able to growmost cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass and perennialryegrass year round.
Inversely, the bermudagrass-growing season is very short in parts ofthe transition zone, lasting only 4 to 5 months (May-September). Forthis reason, many athletic field managers overseed with species likeperennial or annual ryegrass to extend color during fall and springsports like football and baseball. This dilemma is part of what makesmanaging bermudagrass athletic fields in the transition zone so trickyfor turf managers all over the Southeast.
The Transition Zone is an area that sits at the northern adaptationof warm-season grasses and the southern limitation of cool-seasongrasses. It runs from North Carolina west through Tennessee,Arkansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. For most athletic fields in theseregions, berrruoagrass is the species of choice for several reasons.First, its aggressive rhizomatous and stoloniferous growth habits allowit to tolerate the wear and tear commonly associated with athleticfields. Popular sports like football and soccer place a lot of pressure onhighly used athletic fields from cleat damage, traffic, and compaction.It takes an aggressive species like bermudagrass to be able to recu-perate from such damage. Second, bermudagrass is easily overseed-ed for fall and spring sports like football and baseball. Although, thesesports can be played on non-overseeded. dormant termuoegrass,there are many instances where this may be unacceptable. For exam-ple. can you imagine turning on your television to watch a nationally tel-evised, primetime Thursday night college football game and seeing dor-mant bermudagrass? Not likely.
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FIELD SCIENCE
Also, many baseball programs, whether atthe college, high school, or municipal level,prefer to play on overseeded turf.
The third reason oermuoegress if the pre-ferred species is that it's easy to manage.With the right inputs from fertilization, irriga-tion, and mowing, bermuoegress can takealmost anything you throw at it from footballgames, concerts, graduation events, etc. I amsure athletic field managers all over theSoutheast have plenty of stories of events thatsomeone in administration has asked them tohost on their field. So. in order to keep yourfields in tip-top shape, here are some generalguidelines on berrnodagrass management inthe southeast transition zone.
One of the first questions to address iswhat variety of oermuoagress is best for ath-letic fields in the transition zone. Keep in mindthat when managing an existing berrnuoagrass
field, it is very difficult to incorporate a newvariety, in which case this is a trivial point.
10 April 2006
However, when establishing a field from seed,sprigs. or sad. variety selection is an importantfirst step. There are many available varietieson the market today. To illustrate this point,there are currently 42 different varieties ofbermudagrass in the existing Nationalrurtgress Evaluation Program (NTEP) bermuda-grass trial. The Crop Science Department atNorth Carolina State University is one of manyhost-sites for this trial, and of the 42 varietiesbeing tested, about half are commerciallyavailable.
The interesting point of this is that 29 ofthese 42 varieties are available as seed. Inthe past. the only bermudagrass varieties thatpossess the low growth habit. dark color, fineleaf texture, and overall high quality that isneeded for high-profile, high quality athleticfields were hybrid varieties.
The most popular of these hybrid varietiesof course is Tifway (often referred to as 419),Tifway is an inter-species cross betweenCommon tem-uoegrass (Cynodon dactyl on)and African berrnuoegrass (Cynodon trans-vealensis). Although Tifway has proven overthe years to be a high-quality, reliable variety,the drawback is that it must be sprigged orsodded. Many athletic field managers at thehigh school and municipality level do not havethe budget to do this and therefore are forcedto seed.
Seeded varieties, until recently, typicallypossessed characteristics very similar to com-mon bermudagrass which included coarse leaftexture, light green color, and an open canopythat cannot tolerate low mowing heights.However, this is no longer the case. Many ofthe newer seeded varieties perform as good orbetter than some of the hybrid varieties regard-ing density, color, leaf texture. and overall qual-ity.
Another important factor that should betaken into consideration is cold tolerance,especially in the transition lone. Older vari-eties like Mldiron, Quickstand, and Vamontused to be the selections of choice when coldtolerance was an issue, However, their appear-ance made them unsuitable for use on highprofile fields. Newer varieties like Tifsport.Patriot. Yukon, and Riviera have been shown topossess not only desirable growth character-istics, but improved cold tolerance as well.
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