Assistant Athletics Director, Sports Fields for Texas A&M Athletics. Certified Sports Field Manager. Views expressed are my own & not that of my employer.
Synthetic turf plays just like real grass they say ๐คฅ...pretty sure Iโve never seen a ball bounce like this on natural grass!
#naturalgrassisbetter
When the water line that feeds the entire stadium breaks 4 hours before first pitch, you improvise a way to get a pregame water on the infield dirt!
#usewhatyougot
First lines of the fall went down on Kyle Field today. That can only mean one thingโฆ..
@AggieFootball
season is upon us! Our crew with
@aggiefieldstaff
has been crushing it all summer so weโre almost ready to go!
Very few field managerโs get to build the type of relationship Rob & I developed over our years together. ALWAYS treated me & my crew with dignity, respect & included us as a part of the team. Also opened his arms to Holly & I from day one & treated us like family.
#ClassAct
"Coach Childress is a great man and we appreciate his long-term dedication to Texas A&M and for leading our baseball program with class and dignity in every phase..."
Day 2 of painting is in the books. Mother Nature is certainly keeping us on our toes but the crew continues to step up to the occasion. Tomorrow will be a second coat on all the logos and Friday will be left for touch up work. After thatโฆ
@AggieFootball
GAMEDAY
2nd half was played after heavy rain with off & on drizzle, followed by another heavy rain postgame. Games played in wet conditions can cause significantly more damage. Quick bayonet aerification to help the field breath, move water, & recover followed by a light roll & mow.
It was a busy morning at Olsen Field this morning backfilling and rolling edges to ensure a smooth transition from grass to dirt. Trying to make final preparations for the start of the fall season for
@AggieBaseball
next week!
Yesterday was inside edges and the back arc of the infield dirt. Today we finished backfilling the outside edges and baselines. Olsen Field is pretty much ready to go for the start of fall practice for
@AggieBaseball
on Monday!
In other news, today was
@ag90turfgrass
โ last day before retiring from
@12thMan
after 27 years! One of the GOATโs of sportsfield management
@FieldExperts
! To quote Tim McGraw, โthe ending of an era and the turning of a pageโ. Thanks for everything Craig and happy retirement!
If you build it, he will come...
Field manager Nick McKenna was bestowed the honor of serving on the grounds crew for Thursday's
#MLBatFieldofDreams
game! ๐๐งข๐
@aggiefieldguy
|
#GigEm
Wrapped up another successful football season for the
@aggiefieldstaff
. Canโt thank these guys enough for all that they do! Very few people see or even recognize the amount of time, effort, energy, & work that they put into ALL of our fields. Next up, Spring sports!
#BTHOEveryone
Had a great stroll with
@drewsky18
yesterday knocking some holes on
@AggieFootball
โs practice fields. Lots of extra wear & tear this year due to construction. This week is the biggest break these fields have until our bye week in Oct. Next up, burying them in 100+ tons of sand!
What an incredible honor it was for me to work with this group for the past 3 days to help execute the
#MLBatFieldofDreams
game! Thank you to
@cookmurray
& co. for allowing me to play a small part in that endeavor!
Another home football season in the books. Iโll go to battle with this crew anytime! So thankful for each one of these individuals! Couldnโt accomplish what we do without their hard work and dedication every day.
Had a little extra help this morning from the head man himself. Thanks for coming out this morning
@RossBjorkAD
and giving Kyle Field a fresh cut as we prepare for the first
@AggieFootball
game of the season!
#BTHONewMexico
Last
@AggieBaseball
regular season game of the year. The field is a little battered and bruised but overall itโs been a great season! Shout out to my crew
@aggiefieldstaff
Iโll put yโall up against anyone in the country!
โPatience is a virtueโ. I frequently remind myself of that & to trust the process of what weโre doing, especially when a large portion of our โsuccessโ depends on cooperation from Mother Nature & athletes/coaches. Every once in a while the process rewards us for our patience!๐๐
1๏ธโฃ more time for the year! Weโre a little dinged up from our rain game last week (mostly from the band) but all in all, Kyle Field is in great shape for
@AggieFootball
to
#BTHOLSU
! I canโt thank my
@aggiefieldstaff
team enough for all their hard work, effort & energy this season!
Not quite the result that we wanted but we move on and start preparing for the next one. A little postgame mow with baskets, spray foliar fertilization, and irrigation to begin the recovery process. Only 7 days to get ready for
@AggieFootball
to BTHOMiami!
And thatโs a wrap for today! Western field extension installation completed. We will get it painted and striped up tomorrow and let
@Aggiefootball
have it!
Signs that
@AggieFootball
is getting close to finally returning to Aggieland for a home gameโฆwhen
@aggiefieldstaff
starts lining Kyle Field. โ We have ourselves a football field again!
This is why you need a true warning track surface & not just a change in the carpet color! Change in texture & sound serve as a warning to athletes & help prevent injuries like this. Hate to see this happen to a great guy (& Aggie) like
@TyNaquin
! Hoping for a speedy recovery!
.
@aggiefieldstaff
got the tarp pulled at Blue Bell Park just before the heavens opened up. Tip of the cap to the whole crew that got caught in the downpour. From experience, pulling tarp is serious business.
Different day, same story! Our team of people with
@aggiefieldstaff
are phenomenal! They rise to the challenge every single time I throw one at them! Huge shout out to the
@AggieBaseball
players parents (and others) that were helping us haul buckets over the wall!
#Undefeated
Team effort here at Blue Bell:
@aggiefieldstaff
pumping water from the grass into buckets and handing it over the fence to parents/fans who are dumping it off the field.
Everyone give
@aggiefieldguy
and his folks some love.
Sometimes itโs the simplest things in life that are the best! Brought my buddy Murphy along to check on the field after the rains this weekend. I think he is in heaven!
@WeLoveDogsUSA
@dog_rates
@DogsOfTurf
My crew did it again! Weโve been patiently preparing and waiting for
@AggieFootball
to return to Kyle Field. As usual,
@aggiefieldstaff
knocked it out of the park and has Kyle ready for the Ags to
#BTHOolemiss
! ๐ช
All dressed up and ready to go for
@AggieFootball
! Great job by the entire
@aggiefieldstaff
this week working around weather and practice activities for all of our other teams! Letโs go
#BTHOsamhouston
Time to finish out our practice field expansion project! The sod that is used for this project comes in rolls that are 3.5โ wide, 50โ long & 1.5โ thick w/ each roll weighing close to 3000 pounds! This allows us to install the grass today & let
@AggieFootball
play on it tomorrow!
My favorite thing from all these photos is if you zoom in you still see smiles on the faces of our crew members despite the daunting job they were being tasked with. They continuously rise to the challenge and find ways to enjoy it while doing so!
#LaborOfLove
#AboveAndBeyond
Took some extra time today to get a few of our student assistants a little bit of experience on the end of a paint gun. Our students are an integral part of EVERYTHING that our crew does. We couldnโt support our teams and student athletes the way we do without them!
#TrainingDay
That concludes another Fall season of home sporting events for
@12thMan
. Iโm continually thankful for this team of individualsas theyโve crushed it all season! Not just for
@AggieFootball
, but for
@AggieSoccer
,
@AggieSoftball
,
@AggieBaseball
, & all of our other athletic teams.๐
What a crew. What a year. Kyle Field played incredibly all year and it wouldnโt be possible without every single person (and some not pictured) in this picture! GigโEm!๐๐ผ
Thankful to the entire
@aggiefieldstaff
crew for all their hard work in making sure Kyle Field is safe and playable for
@AggieFootball
every week! Making it look good as well is just the icing on the cake! Also nice having a leader that recognizes what we do! ๐ซก
Day 2 of Operation Put Kyle Field Back Together. Started the day w/ all the grass removed from the construction zone & finished it w/ the surface rough graded. Tomorrow will begin fine detail leveling, reinstallation of irrigation heads & a finish grade floated out over the area.
Time for another round of cultural practices! Got to beat it up to make it look better! The crew knocked out the vertical mowing on Olsen Field today. This process helps to remove thatch & promotes more lateral growth & improved density of the field.
#PoorMansFrazeMow
Following up Wednesdayโs aerification of the practice fields w/ a layer of sand topdressing. This will help fill the aerification holes, smooth the playing surface, maintain drainage, & reduce thatch build up on the fields. Less than 4 weeks until
@AggieFootball
practice starts!
After back-to-back scrimmages on Kyle Field this week it was time for a little non-disruptive aeration.
@glkturftexas
Only 2 weeks until the first
@AggieFootball
game!
Extremely proud of my team for their hard work & dedication to pull everything together at exactly the right time! Itโs been an eventful year so far around
@AggieAthletics
w/ all the construction going on & our
@aggiefieldstaff
crew powered through it all. Letโs BTHO New Mexico!
6 walk thruโs, 1 full practice, and 3 scrimmages on Kyle since August 2nd. Itโs been a hell of a summer but man I couldnโt be happier with where we are.
@AggieFootball
is BACK!๐๐ผ
#BTHOnewmexico
@drewsky18
getting a fresh cut on Kyle Field this morning before we start throwing down some more paint. Had a few casualties of war yesterday due to the rain but they will get touched back up before the week is over in preparation for
@AggieFootball
to
#BTHOSamHoustonSt
!
Itโs always nice when your work gets noticed by others...especially when one of them is your Athletic Director! Thanks
@RossBjorkAD
for taking notice of the great work our members of
@aggiefieldstaff
do!
Under our โnew normalโ circumstances, the grass must be cut & readied. Our field crew is amazing & we appreciate their work during this time๐๐ช
IOWA, here I come! Wheels up to spend the week working on the field for the
#MLBatFieldOfDreams
game again! ๐ซLooking forward to another fantastic experience although it will be hard to top last year!
#WalkOff
Very blessed to be able to do what I do & work with the people that I get to on a daily basis! Wouldnโt be possible without the help of all the awesome individuals of
@aggiefieldstaff
. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to highlight what our crew does!
@FieldExperts
Itโs been a looong summer for our practice fields due to construction logistics! Starting the morning out right with
@CgcChad
and
@CarolinaGreenCo
doing a little patchwork on the Coolidge Practice Fields in preparation for the first
@AggieFootball
fall practice tomorrow. ๐
We got a fun new toy this week to experiment with on a few of our fields. This grow light will enable us to grow grass & recover parts of the field around the clock. Thanks to
@matt_d_will
&
@SGLsystem
for setting us up with a unit to demo!
Thatโs a wrap for day 1 of
@AggieFootball
practice and day 1 of grass installation. Back at it again tomorrow to finish the Western side field!
#WeAintDoneYet
I love that members of our senior staff show an interest in what we do and are willing to try their hand at our craft!
@Kristen_Brown5
might have just raised the anti on you
@RossBjorkAD
!
#WhosNext
If the letters in the south end zone are a little crooked on Saturday
@AggieFootball
, it may or may not be my fault! I appreciate
@aggiefieldguy
for his patience & teaching me the ropes of how to paint the field. Enjoyed my time today; maybe next time heโll let me mow the grass!