2025 RISING STAR AWARDS GAGE KNUDSON crew is split into two separate staffs— each with their own equipment.
“ We only have one training field for our first team, so it’ s a high-use field,” he said.“ Our training facility is located on a college campus( Cal State LA), so we share some property. We maintain two additional grass fields from an agronomic and maintenance perspective, which allows our second team and academy teams to train on them on an everyday basis.”
There are two fields at the Cal State LA site, and the usage schedule is broken down into two-hour windows. From 8 to 10 a. m. is the Cal State women’ s team window, 10 a. m. to noon is
to Kansas State University( K-State), where he earned his bachelor’ s degree in Agriculture, with a focus on turfgrass management.
While at K-State, Knudson worked at the K-State research facility, and also worked with K-State Athletics, helping out with soccer.
In 2018, he interned with the New York Red Bulls— the same year they won the SFMA Field of the Year Award. The work that Dan Shemesh and Neal Sitzman did in New York influenced Knudson in his career journey, and, following graduation from K-State, he took a job with LAFC in 2019, working at the team’ s training facility.
“ I did that for about a year and a half, and then took over the stadium in 2021,” he said.“ I oversee pitch recovery, and long-term maintenance recovery of internal, external events. We have five full-time staff; I have two assistants— one at BMO Stadium and the other at our LAFC training facility.”
The LAFC training facility is located approximately 20 minutes from BMO Stadium, so Knudson’ s
32 SportsField Management | October 2025 sportsfieldmanagementonline. com