SPORTING GROUNDS

By John Kmitta

STMA classifies the “ sporting grounds ” category as fields for “ non-mainstream ” sports ( i . e ., anything outside the “ Big 4 ” of football , baseball , soccer and softball ). However , in recent years , sports in the sporting grounds category — especially lacrosse , rugby and field hockey — have all seen growth in popularity in the United States . And while many of these “ non-mainstream ” sports are still played on multi-purpose fields , there are some very specific field maintenance considerations .

“ The type of grass , season in which the sport is played , and how the sport is played , changes how it is maintained ,” said Brian Dossett , CSFM , head turf manager , Oxner Landscape , which manages Christ Church Episcopal School , Greenville , S . C . “ For example , we have a field that is used for field hockey in the fall and lacrosse in the spring . Before lacrosse was added , this field was never overseeded and required little extra attention after the season or in the spring to have great recovery from the previous field hockey season . Now that lacrosse also uses the field , overseeding is a must , and a lot of attention is given after lacrosse season to ensure great recovery .”

According to Scott Thompson , CSFM , director of landscape services at Duke University , the biggest challenge is having one facility meet the needs of different sports in different seasons .

“ For us , men ’ s and women ’ s soccer have similar needs . The field has the same dimensions and the demands on the field are generally the same ,” said Thompson . “ Where it starts to get challenging is during the lacrosse season

Linda Reeves Field at Christ Church Episcopal School , Greenville , S . C .

where we have men ’ s and women ’ s lacrosse , which have different needs . Ultimately , it is a different style of play . The fields have different dimensions , and often that can make for challenging management strategies . With different styles of play and field dimensions we have to monitor the field closely to ensure the wear and traffic of one sport doesn ’ t adversely affect the field playability for the other sport .”

Thompson added that field stability and footing are paramount for all sports .

“ Things like ball roll and surface smoothness are keenly important in the game of soccer but much less so for the game of lacrosse ,” said Thompson . “ We often have to mitigate any surface smoothness issues around the attack and scoring areas for lacrosse so they don ’ t adversely affect ball roll for soccer in their penalty and scoring areas .

“ Typically we are playing soccer on bermudagrass and immature ryegrass ,” Thomson added . “ We then have a couple of months to prepare and adjust to playing lacrosse on a ryegrass field as our bermudagrass is dormant . Conversely , we have the summer months to transition our ryegrass field back to bermudagrass ahead of soccer season . The downtime between seasons provides us enough time to repair any issues and make adjustments prior to the next season .”

Thompson said his biggest challenge this year is playing all four sports on one field during the same season .

“ This year , the biggest thing we have to do is to take it one game at a

28 SportsField Management | May 2021 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com