FIELD OF THE YEAR SCHOOLS AND PARKS BASEBALL
after class to help finish painting or mowing to make sure everything got done on game days .
I am a little more than a year removed from the surgery ; and although I still struggle with daily headaches , I am starting to feel like myself again . Losing the hearing in my right ear has been very difficult , but I am adapting , and my students are so supportive and understanding of my hearing issues .
This was an extremely difficult year for me personally , and the fact that we were able to maintain a beautiful facility and even add to its beauty this year was so refreshing to me . I am so proud of the work we did on our facility this past year to produce an amazing playing surface .
SFM : Can you share a little about your overall management approach to the winning field and what you feel have been the most important aspects to getting this field to an awardwinning level ?
McCaffrey : I have a passion for maintaining our two baseball fields on campus . I believe that the players in our program deserve to play on the best possible fields . With that comes a lot of hard work . I put in a ton of time and effort to make sure all the small details are correct .
Our turf management class — The Turf Kings — helps to maintain the facility . I teach the students the basics of maintaining a baseball field . The students learn how to use all of our different mowers . They learn how to paint the field . Not only do we paint the batter ’ s box and foul lines , but we add several logos to our field to make it look more like a professional field .
The students wanted to add our trident logo to center field last year . I told them we could make that happen , but they would need to be the ones to do the work . I showed them how to create a template . We made a template and then painted it on the field . Everyone was impressed with how great it turned out . The students used several differ-
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Celebration is a choice that a lot of people have . I like it . The Buccaneers had it and I was convinced to go look at it . It was the ‘ going grass ’. We put it in in 2010 and have run with it ever since .”
— Ritchie Anderson , Director of Grounds
t George M . Steinbrenner Field , the expert grounds crew led by Ritchie Anderson has mastered the use of Celebration ® Bermudagrass , maintaining an exceptional playing surface for the New York Yankees ’ spring training and the Tampa Tarpons . The ballpark , which seats over 11,000 fans , is the largest spring training stadium in Florida and mirrors the dimensions of Yankee Stadium . Celebration ® Bermudagrass , known for its durability and vibrant color , thrives under Anderson ’ s team , providing a consistently lush and resilient field that withstands the demands of professional baseball training and games year-round .
sportsfieldmanagementonline . com March 2025 | SportsField Management
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