FIELD OF THE YEAR

Roser going outon top

""" teve Roser and his Sportscore IIa..; soccer complex have won the

............2005 STMA High School/Parks& Recreation Soccer Field of

---" the Year. Roser has spent 35years as the sports turf manager at the com-plex in Rockford, IL and retires next spring,leaving a legacy of safe playing fields forthousands of young people.

5portsTurf: Do you plan any adjust-ments, large or small, to your maintenanceplan in 2006? Did you purchase or plan to

34 April 2006

purchase any new equipment or product forthis year?

Steve Roser: We are purchasing two newfield painters. We oemo'o a Toro 1200 andthe crew liked it. We have more than 60fields to paint each week and they reallyliked the pull-behind cart to stand on. Wealso are picking up a couple of EZ-GO workcarts and hopefully a new Kitea.

Our maintenance plan should be prettyclose to last season except we should bebreaking ground our 6-8 new tournamentfields on some land we purchased last year.

We could use more rainfall. Last seasonwe experienced our worst drought in 30years. We'll spend more time at SportscoreI ball diamonds because we picked up somenational tournaments this year. We alsopicked up the 2008 Region II soccer cham-pionships, which will be our 4th time in thepast 14 years.

I'm retiring next spring after 37 and ahalf years, all but one of them in sportsturf.I hope to keep working part-time, maybemoving south to warmer weather, and stay-ing involved in STMA.

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5T: What are your keys to communicatingwith users of your fields?

Roser: Since I am onsite so often duringthe season, usually 6-7 days a week andmany evenings, I often see our users andcoaches. I see them as well at our indoorcomplex during indoor training. We meet withall soccer groups before the season andsend a newsletter as well.

ST: Any advice for a turf manager whois preparing his or her soccer fields for atournament?

Roser: We run tournaments every week-end from mid-April through mid-October andhave been for 15 years. We've become real-ly good at it. We aim to have everythingready by Thursday afternoon for a weekendtournament. That leaves Friday to move thegoals, check the nets, flag the fields. settingup for parking. security and concessionsand so on

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Fill 11\132 Oil reader service form or visit www.oners.ims.caIS906-132

SportsTurf 35

FIELD OF THE YEAR

Maintenance ProgramDecemberClose outdoor facilities; perform preventive maintenance on equipment; assistwith indoor events; remove snow; inventory for new season's supplies.

JanuaryContinue preventive maintenance and assisting indoors; remove snow; ordernew season's supplies.

FebruaryContinue preventive maintenance and assisting indoors; remove snow.

MarchContinue preventive maintenance and assisting indoors; begin outside workweathering permitting; move to shop and prepare for season: begin laying outfields and painting; work on bleachers, benches, goals.

AprilSet up bleachers, benches, goals. etc.; fertilize all fields 0-0-50 green grade;fertilize sand fields 11-52-0 map; mow as needed; turn on irrigation; start crab-grass control.

MayBroadleaf control; fertilize all fields 15-1-10, 50% organic, 50% nutralene; fertil-ize sand fields 11-52·0 map; mow 2X week; double-slice fields with 6-in. knives.

JuneSecond crabgrass control as needed; double aerify all fields, follow with a top-dressing of Turface or Pro's Choice; mow 2X week; late in the month, preventivegrub control.

JulyMove and adjust all fields for fall season; renovate weak areas. seed. sod, andlots of irrigation; mowing.

AugustContinue renovations; fertilize all fields 15-1·10, 50% organic, 50% nutralene;double-slice fields early in the month with s-in. knives: start aggressive over-seeding program.

SeptemberFertilize all fields 0-0-50 green grade; fertilize sand fields 11-52-0 map; contin-ue overseeorog: double aerify early in the month, follow with Turface or Pro'sChoice.

OctoberFertilize all fields 20-5·20, 50% SCU, slow one-release N/SOP; fertilize sandfields 11-52-0 map; aerify fields late in the month; erose fields as needed andstart renovation work.

NovemberShut down irrigation; continue renovating as able; dormant seeding as needed;fertilize all fields 21-D-0-4 ammonium; store all benches, bleachers, goals, etc.;put fields to bed for winter; begin work on next year's budget.

Main assistant is Tom Edell

36 April 2006

We don't mow on Fridays unless it rains.The crew really appreciates this, the seniorcitizens who mow get 3-day weekends, andthe younger guys who work weekends getFridays off as well.

During tournaments I assign one soccersupervisor per six fields. He or she remainsin their zone during the games, picking up,checking nets & flags, cleaning, etc. Thesupervisors also contact EMTs if necessaryby radio. We always have a roamer duringlarger tournaments who gives breaks andempties garbage cans. This guy needs to bea troubleshooter.

As the last game of the day begins, I gath-er a garbage crew to pick up everywherebefore we can go home. Doing it then giveseveryone a chance to sleep in a little and beready to go the next morning. This doesmean long, 14-15 hour days but everyonelikes it because it means more money.

The biggest challenge in tournamentpreparation is switching field sizes betweentournaments of different age groups, We useseveral colors of paint, white, orange, blue,and yellow. Most often. tournament prepbegins Monday morning when we measurenew field dimensions. Sometimes we paint

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I would like to see turf managers andofficials' groups work together and try to

make it a rule that officials switchdiagonals at half time. We're all interested in

good fields. not just the turf managers.

FIELD OF THE YEAR

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38 April 2006

FIELD OF THE YEARthe fields twice a week: the regularfields white for league play, and small-er fields inside the white with anothercolor.

ST: What's the greatest pleasureyou derive from your job? What's thebiggest headache?

Roser: As with any turf manager,my biggest headache can be theweather, or should I say the wrongweather at the wrong time. Getting aheavy rain the night before or duringan all-day tournament on a weekendis tough. We can and have cancelledleague play and practice but for tour-naments it's much harder to do. Oneday or one weekend of play like thatcan destroy weeks or even months ofhard work and it sets you back.

The referee lines are a problem.Almost every week we narrow orwiden our fields; we use six differentwidths. Two-man crews did not createa problem but the three-man systemdoes. Several times we've had success

with officials switching diagonals everyother game when the fields were wet.but it is a real chore.

I would like to see turf managersand officials' groups work togetherand try to make it a rule that offi-cials switch diagonals at half time.We're all interested in good fields,not just the turf managers.

I have many pleasures at my Job.Seeing kids of all ages, boys andgirls, playing on nice fields is great. Istill love planning my week over afresh cup of coffee, early in the morn-ing. Working outside every day. cook-ing out with crew for lunch.

Probably my greatest treasure of 35years was working with my staff. I haveworked with hundreds of young menand women since 1971 and I've seenso many of them go on to be success-ful When they stop by and see me theyusually thank me for helping them pre-pare for the workforce, They rememberthe 60-hour weeks, working 30 days ina row at the sportscores .•

•,'~ ",

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