Joe Bean understood the assignment.

He had been approached by a young, fresh-faced reporter from the local newspaper who had been given the task of writing a profile piece about Bean, his life, his career, and his efforts to revitalize the local library – all for a special section showcasing community leaders. That reporter was me.

Bean could have been brusque or reserved or just given me the basic answers to all of my awkwardly structured questions. Instead, he gave me an hour and a half of his time. A former journalist himself, Bean knew the best anecdotes to allow me to tell his story in an interesting way. More than two decades later, that rainy fall afternoon speaking with Joe Bean over a cup of tea still resonates with me. It’ s because it made me realize that I love sharing other people’ s stories.

At that time, I was grinding away writing dozens of articles per week, spending my evenings sitting through countless village board, school board and library board meetings; heading to the county courthouse to dig for the latest scoop on local trials; and pretty much covering anything else newsworthy around town. I even wrote movie reviews for the entertainment section. But all of that paled in comparison to writing feature profiles.

That is why this issue is so special to me. For the third year in a row, I’ m proud to present you with the Sports- Field Management Rising Star Awards,

John Kmitta Associate Publisher / Editorial Brand Director jkmitta @ epgacceleration. com

763-383-4405 EPG Brand Acceleration

sponsored by STEC Equipment. For this issue, I had the pleasure of speaking with each of this year’ s five Rising Stars. As in past years, after speaking with the winners, I am confident that we made the correct choices.

Each of this year’ s winners was overly gracious with their time, and I thoroughly enjoyed my conversations with these amazing young sports field managers. They shared with me their career journeys, their challenges and their triumphs. They understood the assignment. I just hope that I have been able to do justice to each of them in the pages that follow.

But this issue is not just about the Rising Star Award winners. It’ s also about the Women In Turf Team, who once again volunteered to help with the Little League Softball World Series. It’ s about the College Baseball FOY winner, Joe Stumpo. It’ s about the students from Atwater High School and Golden Valley High School who worked with the crew at the LA Memorial Coliseum. It’ s about those who volunteered for the Little League Baseball World Series. And it’ s about Rob Guthrie, who manages the fields at the Little League International Complex year round.

It’ s about people. It’ s about shining a light on their work. It’ s about telling their stories.

Enjoy.

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6 SportsField Management | October 2025 sportsfieldmanagementonline. com