Turf chief revels in fieldwork

PROVO — When the Brigham Young University football team faces off against Arizona today, at least one Cougar fan won't be watching the action on the field.

David Schlotthauer can't stand the games, but once you know his occupation it's easy to understand.

"I hate it because we put in a lot of time at the field," the BYU turf renovation supervisor said. "I can't watch it ripped up."

Schlotthauer has been the athletic turf supervisor at BYU for nearly seven years. But he was also recently elected as the inaugural president of the Intermountain chapter of the Sports Turf Managers Association — a group dedicated to combining the science of growing turf with the art of maintaining sports fields to produce playable, aesthetically pleasing athletic fields.

As college sport programs have evolved over the years, so has turf maintenance, said BYU athletic facilities manager Todd Munger. In preparation for the 2007 season, turf crews have been working from sunup to sundown for nearly two weeks.

Munger starts work in the morning and stays until 9 or 10 p.m.

"It's a lot of work," Munger said.

Cultivating a healthy, pretty playing field requires more than a quick mow and a paint job. There's aeration to help oxygen and water seep into the roots, over-seeding to keep the field looking green and top-dressing to modify the soil profile. When the turf is shredded beyond repair, crews quickly replace it with hexagon-shaped plugs from a nearby sod farm.

Schlotthauer said the turf crew's attention to detail goes beyond a concern for aesthetic appeal.

"(The field) should enhance the play of the game instead of being a detriment," he said.

On a bad field, the turf is uneven and too hard or too soft. In a worst-case scenario, players can trip and get injured on a poorly managed field.

"There have been times when that has actually hurt a player," Schlotthauer said.

Munger said he remembers watching one BYU-Utah game at Rice-Eccles Stadium when the field was so soft, ground crews scrambled in to repair divots between plays.

"I'm glad we don't have those problems," Schlotthauer joked after hearing about the incident.

On the other hand, a well-managed field will be smooth, and players won't easily rip up divots. On an ideal football field, the turf will have an 18-inch crown from the sideline to the center of the field to drain rain water quickly. It's also supposed to look better on TV, he said.

When Schlotthauer isn't caring for the athletic fields at BYU, he's teaching others to look after their own fields. In his capacity as president of the turf managers association, Schlotthauer offers his advice to coaches and ground crews throughout Utah, Idaho and Montana.

"Basically, whatever we can do to help, that's what we want to do," he said.

Whenever Schlotthauer takes time to watch other school teams compete, he often finds himself comparing their playing fields to the turf back at BYU.

"It's ruined me," he laughed.

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