“ Colin puts in tireless effort to develop his employees – not just improving their skills, but helping them grow as individuals. He has a unique ability to connect with young people while also earning the respect of seasoned veterans. Colin has significantly improved his company’ s understanding of how to use natural turf in sustainable ways, all while meeting the rigorous demands of youth athletics at the tournament level.”
RISING STAR AWARDS
Colin Boak
Senior Director of Operations and Grounds, Legacy Sports Complex
RISING STAR AWARD WINNER Colin Boak has always been drawn to the athletic field. A three-sport athlete from Fowlerville, Michigan, Boak played baseball, football and basketball, and spent his summers painting football fields and dragging baseball fields.
At the same time, his father was an independent contractor, so Boak would help with shingling roofs, hanging drywall, or helping build pole barns, among other tasks.
“ At a young age I learned I didn’ t want to work behind a desk,” he said.“ My dad taught us how to work hard. It was never just an allowance for doing household chores. If you wanted something, it was,‘ Hey, come rip off a roof with me in the 95-degree heat before you go to football practice.’”
Following high school, Boak was able to pursue his love of baseball when he got recruited to pitch for a Division III University of Olivet. He originally pursued a degree in communications, but soon switched to sports management as his major.
“ Being a DIII school, they had very little budget for field maintenance,” he said.“ Most of the time it was us taking care of the field. As pitchers, we took care of the mound and the plate area, and watered the infield. There were challenges, but it made me think about how we could make things better.”
Following graduation from the University of Olivet, Boak went on to pursue a master’ s degree in Science and Sports Management from Eastern Michigan University. While working on his master’ s, Boak took an internship working with the game day staff and facility staff at Eastern on the football, baseball, soccer and softball fields. He also worked at a golf course, and took a job at Legacy Sports Complex coaching 10U baseball.
“ While I was coming up here to Legacy, they were building their outdoor baseball fields. When the baseball fields opened up, I started working here,” he said.
After a brief stint away from Legacy, he returned in 2019 to manage the baseball fields. He took over the soccer fields in 2021, and in 2024 was promoted to his current position as senior director of operations and grounds.
“ We have eight full-size outdoor natural grass soccer fields or plots, as well as one full-size high school baseball field, four softball fields with full infield skin and grass outfields, and one mini field with a 150-foot fence and grass infield for 8U and 9U baseball,” said Boak.“ I also take care of the 70-plus acres of common areas, which are all natural grass.”
Boak also oversees Legacy’ s indoor facilities, including two indoor synthetic fields and an indoor basketball arena that features eight basketball courts and 16 volleyball courts. He also serves as assistant tournament director for baseball at Legacy Sports Complex.
Legacy’ s users span all ages, but the facility sees a heavy amount of youth groups including an in-house baseball club, two in-house travel softball clubs, and programs for children as young as four years old for T-ball. During spring and summer Legacy hosts youth tournaments from 8U to 18U. The facility also hosts youth soccer and lacrosse; adult soccer tournaments; programs for adult basketball, flag football and soccer; and even a Friday night indoor softball league from November through March.
Balancing such a heavy event load has its challenges for Boak, especially finding the right work-life balance with his young family.
We mentioned at the top that Boak has always been drawn to the sports field. So it should be no surprise that he met his wife, Cori, for the first time on the playing field.
“ I need to clarify up front that we were the same age – we were both 17 – but I was umpiring a game for extra money and she was playing shortstop,” said Boak.“ To this day, she will tell you that I blew a call on a runner that she tagged out. They even played the video of it at our wedding.”
The two dated throughout college, got married in 2019, and now have two children.
“ Our daughter, Kennedy, was born in 2024, and we just had our son, Jackson, on June 27 of this year,” said Boak. Spending time with his children is his number one pastime outside of work, in addition to enjoying family vacations, going on walks, heading to the local park, or just hanging out on their deck.
“ Having children has definitely changed my perspective on work-life balance,” he said.“ Wanting to be home with them is a higher priority. My wife is understanding if I need to go in to work, but I’ ve also taken steps to make my life a little easier. We installed security cameras that allow me to check the fields for puddles instead of having to drive over here. Now I can access those cameras from my phone.” Having a great crew also helps manage the work-life balance.“ There are people that I work with here that make it worth coming in each day,” said Boak.“ There’ s a different crew pretty much every summer, but every summer’ s been a good one working with them.”
The full-time grounds staff at Legacy Sports Complex includes Boak and his assistant director, Jake Moyer. From April until November they are joined by a part-time grounds staff of three to four people – usually high school and college students – that come in three to four days a week. During summer baseball tournaments, they also have a grounds crew of five to six people in two shifts that drag and re-line fields every game. Legacy also has a director of operations for the indoor facility, Nathan Skulley, as well as two to three employees that assist indoors throughout the winter.
Boak does his best to connect with the high school and college students on his part-time and seasonal staff.
“ The younger guys all like to be on their phones,” he said.“ I’ m not saying I don’ t, but I try to find ways to incorporate the phone without it being a distraction. We use a checklist app that’ s on their phone so they can check off a task and I know it’ s done.
“ I also think that if you’ re in the trenches with them, they’ re going to work harder for you when you’ re not there,” he added.“ There are times when I’ m not able to be out there with them because I have other responsibilities. But if we’ re doing a big project, I’ m normally right there with them. I also try to understand their schedules and be as flexible as I can.”
Boak is proud to have mentored young people who have gone on to bigger and better things. For example, one of his former interns is now an assistant director of grounds for a Minor League Baseball team, and he also has young people who have worked with him for several years who are now looking to pursue degrees in turfgrass.“ The more kids we can get in the field, the better. I’ m really proud of that,” he said. As for his own mentors, Boak points first and foremost to Jason DeMink, CSFM, from the University of Michigan, as the person who has supported him and pushed him to be his best. In addition, Boak is thankful for Craig O’ Berry of Pioneer Athletics.
“ When we do something creative, Craig is very quick to help me get something done. For example, we are painting a logo for our football program for the first time. The kids saw the template and are jazzed up about that. Craig has been a huge help with things like that.”
According to Boak, the biggest challenges of his career came during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a nurse, Cori was at the hospital and working with COVID patients. Meanwhile, Legacy Sports Complex was operating at 50 % capacity.
“ We weren’ t considered essential workers. So we were technically only getting paid to come in three days a week,” said Boak.“ But when my wife went to the hospital I would go cut some grass; I was the only one on campus. But it was tough not knowing if I would have a job at the end of it. I had just started full time the previous year. We are privately funded and our business is built on hosting events. That was probably the scariest part.”
In the end, it worked out well for Boak, as approximately 15 professional baseball players trained and would throw bullpen sessions at Legacy during the pandemic.
“ I was able to prepare the mounds for professionals, and they would tell us how they like it,” he said.“ We are used to 14 year olds on our mounds, and they aren’ t throwing 100 miles per hour. So getting our mound right was a learning curve. But those guys were just grateful to be able to practice somewhere outside; and I was grateful because I was able to learn how they liked it at the big league level. Now we’ ve carried that over and our areas are in better shape because we treat it like the pros are still pitching on it.”
Another challenge for Boak and his crew was hosting Sevilla FC while serving as their training ground.
“ We had to meet the needs of a professional club in a short period of time,” he said.“ We basically picked our nicest plot and I threw down close to 100 tons of sand. We overseeded with 2,000 pounds of ryegrass to try to get it growing.”
Boak, who considers himself a perfectionist when it comes to the grass was stressed before Sevilla FC arrived on site because rain the night before the team’ s arrival prevented him from mowing.
“ Then the morning cut was a little soft, so I didn’ t cut it down as short as I knew they’ d want it,” he added.“ Sevilla got off the bus and their club director looked at us and said,‘ It’ s not short enough.’ But the minute they were done with their morning session, we double cut it and had it ready for the afternoon session. When it had dried up and firmed up a little bit, they were like,‘ Oh, it’ s great now.’” Despite the challenges, Boak said he likes being behind the scenes.“ If people don’ t know who I am, that’ s probably for the best because that means nothing’ s going wrong,” he said.“ We’ re not really sanctioned by anything, so we have freedom to be creative. For example, for Mother’ s Day we paint our batter’ s boxes pink with hearts in them, and we paint our bases. One of the coolest moments for me is watching moms who want to come out there with their kids before the game to take pictures.”
And even if people don’ t know who put in the work to make the fields special, their joy makes it worth the effort.
“ I’ m not looking for recognition,” he said.“ It’ s just cool knowing that they’ re getting enjoyment on something that you spent all week trying to get ready. People coming back for tournaments has a lot to do with what my crew is doing. I want the people to want to come back for the tournament and the way it’ s run, but also for how the fields look, how they are taken care of, and how they play. I’ m not in it for the rewards, but it is great to have people recognize us for our fields.”
Now, as he receives recognition as a Rising Star in the industry, Boak is thankful to have been nominated and selected by his peers.
“ The Rising Star Award means the world to me,” he said.“ I remember going to the conference last year and hearing from you for the last year’ s Rising Star winners. I never thought it could be someone like me. I worked my way to this point through a different route. Hearing what was said about me in the nomination is a huge honor and something that I don’ t take lightly. I don’ t want to say the pressure is on, but I do want to be able to live up to those words.”
WHAT THEIR NOMINATOR HAD TO SAY:
“ Colin puts in tireless effort to develop his employees – not just improving their skills, but helping them grow as individuals. He has a unique ability to connect with young people while also earning the respect of seasoned veterans. Colin has significantly improved his company’ s understanding of how to use natural turf in sustainable ways, all while meeting the rigorous demands of youth athletics at the tournament level.”