ON-FIELD ARTISTRY
2021 season . At the end of that year one of the full-time grounds assistants left , and I was offered the position — thus starting my time in groundskeeping . While I was there , Keith Winter and Jake Sperry passed along a lot of knowledge — not just about groundskeeping but life as well . They are both great people , and I am more than grateful for the knowledge and memories I made while I was there with them . In June of 2023 , I became the district groundskeeper here at Fairfield Community Schools in Goshen , Indiana . Since then , I have continued to educate myself about the industry , and have tried to attain the best facilities possible .
I do general grounds work throughout the district and , outside of painting , I am the only one who mows , irrigates and performs cultural practices on the football fields . Eric Smoker is the coordinator of district grounds and maintenance , and assists me with the painting of the football fields and helps with general grounds work when not working on the schools and equipment . Tim Leer ( director of facilities and maintenance ) and Matthew Morgan ( maintenance assistant ) were a big part of clearing , prepping and seeding the ground for our new cross country course this summer .
Fairfield Community schools is made up of the JR / SR High school and three elementary schools , which totals 130 acres of grounds with 90 of those acres being at the high school .
Our athletic facilities include a natural game and practice football field comprised of a bluegrass / ryegrass mix that I started to seed with Barenbrug HGT 80 / 20 . We have synthetic turf baseball and softball facilities , which I will spend more time on in the coming season . We also have a new cross country course .
SFM : Please detail for us the winning design and your inspiration for the design . Steele : This design was created for the opening round of the postseason for the Indiana high school football playoffs . Fairfield had not beaten its first-round opponent , Jimtown , in 44 years , so I wanted to create a V pattern to symbolize an upcoming victory . Fairfield ended up winning this game in a downpour that came through that night . Inspiration for my designs derive from baseball patterns that I have seen with tweaks to fit the shape of the football field . I was very proud of this pattern despite the simplicity of it and had it captured via drone . I wanted to enter the design in the contest not only for myself but for the school district to have an opportunity to be recognized .
SFM : There is a lot of foresight , planning , dedication and hard work in what you do . What is your overall approach with regard to mowing patterns and on-field artistry , and what is your advice to other sports field managers when it comes to the creative aspects of the role ? Steele : When I took over at Fairfield , I immediately took extreme pride in the care of the football field . As the season approached , I took it upon myself to come up with a different pattern for each of the six home games . For the contest design I had a digital template of the field , which I used to find the best angle of the lines to make the pattern look the best . I have a Hustler Hyperdrive zero-turn with a stripe kit that really helped make patterns pop . Some patterns I did were unconventional for football fields , but I wanted to give the players and community something that they can take pride in as well . My advice for other sport field managers is to continue to educate yourself to create the best version of yourself , and to just enjoy what you ’ re doing . The pride you have in your work will have you continually improving your facilities .
“ Inspiration for my designs derive from baseball patterns that I have seen with tweaks to fit the shape of the football field . I was very proud of this pattern despite the simplicity of it .” - Dakota Steele
SFM : What does winning the SFMA Mowing Patterns Contest mean to you ? Steele : Winning this contest was a big accomplishment for us . I was very proud of the work put in this year , and believed this would be a good opportunity for us . As a small district in rural Indiana , being in a contest with some incredibly maintained fields was already a challenge in itself . The other field managers in the contest deserve credit for the amount of work and detail they put in — not only for their contest design but throughout the year . I was unsure how the contest would go , but I was fortunate to have huge support from not only the community within the district but from outside as well . They wanted to win as much as I did , and were a big reason for Fairfield to come out with a win . SFM sportsfieldmanagementonline . com February 2024 | SportsField Management
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