PROFILE have a specific two-year sports turf program , but we started one in 1988 . I was not the coordinator of the sports turf program until 2014 . First , Eric Miltner and then David Gilstrap ran that program . When they stepped away , I took both programs , which I ’ m still doing today . I teach two classes in the fall , and two classes in the spring – an introductory turfgrass class , a seminar class , a sand-based construction class , and then what I call a capstone class , which attempts to synthesize all turfgrass issues and classes the students have taken while at MSU .
I remind the students in the capstone class , “ We have taught you everything we know , now forget it all , because everything is gray . It ’ s not black and white – it ’ s gray when you get out there .” So we try our best to prepare our students through this class . We teach our students – both two- and four-year – in the same room , which makes us very unique in my mind . We ’ ve never felt the need to separate them – there are other classes that will do that .
The thing about teaching turfgrass is that you rarely teach somebody who isn ’ t “ all in ,” totally enthralled with working in the turfgrass industry . These people , because they have prior experience in the industry , know why they are coming to school , and man are they enthused . So , as I have said many times , this is one of the great teaching jobs in the world .
I have had a lot of great graduate students , several of whom are running turfgrass programs – John Sorochan , who eventually taught Adam Thoms ; Alec Kowalewski at Oregon State ; Jason Henderson at the University of Connecticut ; John Stier , who is also at the University of Tennessee … I don ’ t want to leave anyone out . Tim VanLoo , Matt Anderson , Thomas Green , Ryan Bearss , Jeff Dunne , Jacob Bravo , Mark Krick and Tim Vanini were all graduate students of mine . They all contributed to this program .
Research-wise , for the first 20 years of my career , we did a lot of work with regard to anything that was sports turf related – looking at new grasses , how to manage turf under reduced light or shaded conditions , establishment of turfgrasses , wear tolerances of turfgrasses , etc .
We ’ ve had a lot of projects that have been high-profile . And , while high profile projects have lots of pressure , they sportsfieldmanagementonline . com June 2021 | SportsField Management
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