PERSPECTIVES
Insights from an Internship
TDR, Clegg hammer, and DelTec FieldTester being used to collect data at CPKC Stadium before the KC Current versus Racing Louisville match on June 14, 2025.
By Ava Veith
This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to intern with the Kansas City( KC) Current grounds crew as their playing surface data technician. The KC Current is a professional women’ s soccer team competing in the National Women’ s Soccer League( NWSL), the highest level of professional women’ s soccer in the United States. As a former Division I soccer player at Virginia Tech, getting to work with a professional team like this was truly a dream come true.
I am currently a master’ s student at Virginia Tech under Dr. David McCall, with plans to defend my thesis and graduate in December 2025. I then plan to begin my Ph. D. at Penn State, working with Dr. Chase Straw. My research focuses on athletic field variability and athletesurface interactions, with the ultimate goal of helping sports field managers make data-driven decisions to create the most consistent, safe and high-performing playing surfaces possible.
It’ s difficult to put into words how much this experience meant to me. I’ m incredibly grateful to Head Groundskeeper Jerad Minnick and Assistant Groundskeeper Mira Emma for believing in me and bringing me on board as an intern this summer. The role was a perfect match for my passion for research, and it showed me how fulfilling it can be to apply what I have learned so far as a graduate student to real-world settings.
Every day felt like an opportunity for a mini research project. I loved being able to use technology and all the testing equipment available to quantify how the playing surface changed before and after events like a major rainfall, athlete traffic from matches or training, and various management practices such as aeration( in-
“ Every day felt like an opportunity for a mini research project.”
cluding solid tine, deep tine and cross tine methods, as well as different aerating speeds), verticutting, rolling, and much more. These hands-on experiments gave me a much deeper understanding of how various factors affect field performance. I believe this insight is not only valuable for my current graduate studies, but also for my aspiring future career in sports surface research.
30 SportsField Management | September 2025 sportsfieldmanagementonline. com