Education Spotlight

Louisa County High School Turf Management

The Louisa County High School Turf Program was started in 2004 by Chris Whitlow. The next person to take charge of the program was Mike Hopkins, who won several awards, including Field of the Year in 2011 (football), and in 2013 (soccer) field. Mike retired in 2014. He was followed by Adrian Austin who taught at LCHS for two years until Logan Horne, the current program director, took over in 2016.

Logan Horne graduated from Louisa County High school and was a turf management student under Chris Whitlow. Taking those classes in high school drove him to have a passion for the turf industry and pursue a career as a turfgrass manager and educator.

After graduating from LCHS, Horne earned an associate’s degree in turf management in 2010 and a bachelor’s degree in Crop soils and environmental studies with an emphasis in turf management in 2012, both from Virginia Tech.

Horne has worked as a turfgrass professional for the Virginia Tech field crew, Columbus Crew (MLS), Cincinnati Bengals (NFL), Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL), and ITAC (innovative Turf grass application and consulting.) He began his work at LCHS in July 2016.

“This is an entirely different program from when I was in high school,” says Horne. “The program manages more fields and more equipment for even more sports teams. LCHS has added new sports like field hockey and have started accommodating youth sports programs. They have transitioned all 4 fields to Bermuda grass and installed irrigation systems. We have moved irrigation maintenance, painting fields and aerification all in house. We service and manage 95% of our equipment in house.”

But not everything is new. Horne says, “Whenever we would come into class and ask what we were doing for the day, Mr. Whitlow would always say the same thing, ‘We are going to save the world today.’ I use this line all the time and even have it written as my class objective a lot.”

“The passionate and hardworking students are still here. We have some wonderful students come through this program and they put a lot of extra time and hours into making these fields great and playable for our community.”

THE PROGRAM

“The students do all of the work on the fields -- they mow, paint, layout fields, fix irrigation -- all of it,” Horne shares.

The advanced class chooses paint schemes for football games. (Photo 1) Some examples include: blackout game, white out game, camo game, stars and stripes, breast cancer awareness/ pink out game, green and gold, pink camo game. They choose which logos to use and their placement. “As much as I can put on the students I do. I may have students on 4 different fields in a class period working.”

Photo 1 – Students paint a checkerboard endzone

They do all the set up and break down for the athletic games. They help/do the maintenance on equipment (with Horne’s supervision). Students have done field trips in the past, mostly to local elementary schools to work on fields on cross country trails. They even built an outdoor classroom at one elementary school.

The Advanced Class does private pesticide license testing in spring to become certified to apply pesticides. The program covers all the basic information on turf management. Everything from grass ID, to weed and disease ID to soils, IPM, BMP, aerification, fertilizers, and pesticides.

There are about 100 students each year through landscaping, general turf management (offered twice a year), and advanced, which is a yearlong, dual-enrollment course. Several students have gone through the LCHS program and gone on to Virginia Tech to study turf management. Many others are in the workforce in various landscaping companies in the region.

While the program has required some adjustments during COVID, Horne has maintained a well-rounded learning environment for his turf students. LCHS uses a blended model, with students attending in person two days a week on a staggered schedule and learning virtually on the alternating days. Even still, students spend as much class time as possible on the fields.

Photo 2 – Soccer Field pattern

Another exciting element of the LCHS turf program is the Honey Bee Apiary. The culinary department (Chef Ben Howell) and turf management department manage 10–12 honeybee colonies on campus. The hives are located right next the school where Horne and his students manage the honeybees while educating others about the importance of honeybees in our ecosystem. (Photo 3)

Photo 3 – Students managing honeybee hives

Horne says, “Here at Louisa County High School, we have created a cross-curricular project that promotes project-based learning and cooperation between multiple departments. In addition, we are making a positive impact on the environment. Students and staff maintain several honeybee hives in order to teach students the importance of the bees in our ecosystem and how we can use them effectively in IPM and BMP practices. This project was started in the spring of 2019, and so far we have a few hives and some very gentle honey bees. (Well mostly gentle, as many beekeepers know.) The students complete hive inspections and install/manage bees.”

The honey bee program has received multiple awards and grants for honey bees, totaling $16,500 collected in grant money.

The Louisa County turf program has also been recognized for their excellent work by Syngenta (https://www.golfcourseindustry.com/article/syngenta-photo-contest-winners) and Project Evergreen https://projectevergreen.org/virginia-school-district-named-winner-of-the-our-winning-green-space-contest).

VTC is proud to feature the accomplishments that Logan Horne and his students have achieved. Virginia’s next generation of turf managers are getting a solid foundation through this high school program.

LCHS TURF BY THE NUMBERS

• 4 bermuda athletic fields managed: 1 stadium field, 1 softball field, 1 baseball field and 1 practice field

– Sports played on those fields- Football, Soccer, Softball, Baseball, Field Hockey

– A different theme and paint scheme for each game: all picked, planned and executed by students.

• 2 miles of walking trails behind the school- Sports programs, after school activities and all LCHS classes use these trails.

• Equipment

– 10 Toro reel mowers and Scag zero turns.

– 2 Tractors

– 7 Carts

– 7 painters (mostly 3400 Line Lazer Graco)

– Other: vacuum, aerifier, spreaders

In total, Horne and his students manage around 30 pieces of equipment. They send out as little equipment as possible and even have the school’s auto mechanic classes help with equipment repair and maintenance. (Photo 4)

Photo 4 – Operating and maintaining equipment are essential parts of the program