FIELD OF THE YEAR SCHOOLS AND PARKS SOCCER
Prince : I ’ m involved before the teams arrive . They want to know what we ’ ve done , what the fields are like , what our fertility programs are and our maintenance schedules before they come out to use our facilities . They want to make sure that it ’ s up to par for their athletes to play and practice on it . So I ’ m involved in that a good bit . Pace really prides itself on having this nice , big complex out here . It ’ s secluded enough to where teams want to come out here because it ’ s private . We ’ re here to make it as best as it can be year round .
SFM : Is the increase in sports and events typically your biggest challenge ? Prince : I would say so . We ’ re getting into this realm of sports where they want to be out here all the time . Everybody ’ s always working on getting better and practicing — it ’ s a year-round thing . So that ’ s a little bit tough for us . We ’ re lucky enough that in the fall we don ’ t have a lot of practices out here , so it gives us time to get all that situated . In the spring they ’ re out here practicing all the time . With the addition of all the soccer events , it ’ s been a little more difficult to schedule stuff . But it makes it more fun for us because it ’ s not the same thing year after year . We get to work with different teams and different organizations . We ’ ve done Premier League a couple times , and they ’ re trying to make that a yearly thing where they come over for an American tour . Copa America came up and they contacted us about using the fields . It makes it difficult but fun and exciting for us .
SFM : Please tell us about your fields and facilities and the overall scope of your duties . Prince : We have a softball complex that is completely artificial . Our baseball field infield is artificial , the outfield is 419 bermudagrass , and it has a gravel warning track . Those two fields are the only two artificial playing surfaces that we have . Then we have Walsh Field , which is the stadium field ; and our auxiliary field , which is basically lacrosse , some middle school soccer , and some early flag football games .
My duties are to take care of the whole complex . There ’ s an indoor batting cage and locker room for softball and baseball . There ’ s a baseball building with restrooms and concession stand . The stadium has locker rooms , bathrooms and concession stand . It ’ s mostly me and Larry Fricke who take care of the complex out sportsfieldmanagementonline . com December 2024 | SportsField Management
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