FIELD OF THE YEAR SCHOOLS AND PARKS SPORTING GROUNDS
SportsField Management( SFM): Congratulations on the Field of the Year win. What are you most proud of with this win? Bryan Sheetz: The SFMA Field of the Year award means a great deal to me. I have been so blessed to have a great team to work with at Thomas Dale and Chesterfield County Public Schools. Being recognized by our peers and the community for our hard work means a lot, and I cannot say enough about the kids that make our program so amazing. The playing surface that our student-athletes compete on can easily be overlooked and taken for granted. In a time when many localities move to synthetic turf, we have worked an old field to prime playing conditions that other teams talk about throughout the district. We work tirelessly and collectively to ensure Ed Karpus Field is second to none in safety, playability and aesthetics. We strive to have a field looking like it has never been played on with a surface that our teams have confidence in for them to play at their very best.
Level and category of submission: Schools and Parks Sporting Grounds
Field manager: Bryan Sheetz
Title: Landscaping / turf management teacher
Education: Bachelor of music
Original facility construction: 1965
Turfgrass: Common bermuda, Riviera, 419
Overseed: 10 lbs. of perennial per 1,000 sq. ft. each fall
Rootzone: Sandy loam
SFM: What were the biggest challenges you have faced with the winning field, and how have you approached those challenges? Sheetz: The number one challenge we face is how much the field gets used. During the school year the field gets used almost every day during the growing season for physical education classes, football, field hockey, soccer and lacrosse. We typically spray out the ryegrass the first of June and start pushing the bermuda for fall sports through the summer. Having so many hours on the field also makes nutrient management planning tricky as well. We have to be very exact with our timing in order to get our applications down in between activities. We try to prioritize our levels of maintenance based on season and the intended purpose of the field. For example, fall is football and field hockey where the entire field has divot repairs all season. For spring sports, such as soccer and lacrosse, we are constantly dealing with goal mouths and compaction. We work very closely with our school’ s athletic director with applications and cultural practices that will create the safest and most aesthetically pleasing field in central Virginia.
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