TTA Award W inners
Congratulations to TTA’s 2013
High School Sports Field of the Year
Fairview High School By Liz Nutter, Managing Editor, Leading Edge Communications (publisher of Tennessee Turfgrass)
W
hen a high school has both a game field and a separate practice field for football, the sports turf manager typically deals with wear and tear inflicted on the game field by only one or two games a week. The game field at Fairview High School, however, hosts between six to eleven games every week during football season, including for junior pro, middle school, JV, freshman and varsity teams. “We play more than 60 games on our field within a three-month period,” says head football coach Chris Hughes. “It’s hard to keep the grass going with all that traffic, but our field holds up pretty well.” In fact, it holds up so surprisingly well that it was named TTA’s 2013 High School Sports Field of the Year. In 1981, Fairview’s field was constructed on the native-soil site of a former pond, which forms a natural oval shape bordered by a track and the stadium bleachers. An irrigation system was installed at the same time (and is still in use today), and the field is surfaced with common bermudagrass. So, what’s Fairview’s secret? Coach Hughes attributes it largely to Billy Clark, with Clarkland Sports Fields, who handles all the field maintenance except for mow26
TENNESSEE TURFGRASS
ing. “Clarkland is out here every week, checking on the grass. They do all the aeration, fertilization, weed control, pest control and seeding (when we need more bermudagrass on worn areas), and they do a great job,” Hughes comments. “For instance, one week, we discovered little mounds of dirt on the grass, which was a sign that beetles had infested our
field. The very next day, Billy was out here, spraying. Theo Lankford, who used to work for Clarkland, also still helps us from time to time with input and advice on what we need to do with the field.” Coach Hughes mows the field himself at a 3/4" height, three times a week in summer and twice a week in fall, after a plant growth regulator has been applied
Chris Hughes (left), head football coach at Fairview High School, accepts TTA’s 2013 High School Sports Field of the Year Award, presented by Theo Lankford (right) at the 2014 TTA Annual Awards Ceremony during this past January’s conference.