‘Fields of Excellence’

As a sophomore soccer player in southern Indiana in the 1980s, my teammates and I started our season with an afternoon of shoving smoke bombs down the many gopher holes that dotted our field. The sport is hard enough on legs and ankles without the threat of a break or sprain from stepping into a hole, and it may have been nice to have had the support of an award-winning grounds crew like the one currently tending Caston School Corporation’s fields of play.

For the fourth consecutive year, Josh Lowe, Caston School Corporation transportation and grounds director, and assistant Chuck Warpenburg earned Pioneer Athletic’s Fields of Excellence award for their many hours of hard work maintaining the sports fields along with their oth- er duties.

In 2022, Caston was one of 101 schools nationwide that earned the award, joining the likes of Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Stadium and Franklin College in Indiana.

Lowe and Warpenburg took over groundskeeping responsibilities seven years ago that include the entire campus, though game fields require “special attention.”

“We took the bull by the horns and tried to improve the facilities the best we could with the means we had,” said Lowe. At first, the pair received direction from vendors on proper application of chemicals and turf management. “There was more to it than I ever imagined,” he recalled.

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