SportsTurf 41www.stma.org

ST: How did you get started in turf management?Novinska: I started in turf management without really realiz-

ing it. I was the district delivery/mail driver at the time. During thesummer months, there would be a few slow days, so I asked if Icould fix up some fields. This also helped the custodians, who at thetime were taking care of the fields along with the interior of thebuilding. So I started to fix up the high school’s two baseball fieldsby removing lips as well as edging. The district soon recognized thatthis was important and created the groundskeeper’s position in thefall of 2003. My only prior experience in turf management wasworking at my uncle’s golf course for a couple of summers. I learnedlandscaping, weed trimming and topdressing the greens from himand the rest I taught myself by reading as much as I could, attend-ing turf seminars and field days and completing two online certifi-cate courses through the University of Wisconsin–Madison and theUniversity of Georgia.

ST: How do you balance your work and personal time?Novinska: Balancing work and personal time has been good,

and being in the K-12 level, isn’t as big an issue because I only work40 hours a week, a bit more during peak seasons. My family is verysupportive.

ST: What changes are you planning to make or have you madeto your maintenance plan for 2013, if any?

Novinska: I haven’t made any major changes in 2013. I havebeen researching topdressing the stadium field with compost. Theremay be a small window of opportunity to do this yet this fall, but ifnot, I will try next year.

ST: Are you yet involved in sustainable management practices?If so, what are you doing?

Novinska: I’m becoming a little more involved in sustainablemanagement. I soil test every year and have adjusted my fertilizerprogram because of the high rate of P and K, so over the past fewyears, I have only applied nitrogen. I’m looking into compost, andorganic fertilizers. Installation of an irrigation system has helped meto manage water use. An irrigation system will be installed this fallon the practice football fields. This will help with water conserva-tion by not having to occasionally water during the day.

ST: How do you see your job changing in the future?Novinska: I see my job changing by the use of technology.

Technology is playing a bigger part in the turf industry, with seedgenetics to grow lights to even moisture testers, and it is constantlychanging. Being the only groundskeeper, I need to find all the toolsI can to help me get the job done. n

42 SportsTurf | September 2013 www.sportsturfonline.com

STMA in action

THE STMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE has been set. It includesseveral new events and officially starts on Wednesday, January 22. Theprinted conference brochure and the online version will be availableOctober 1.SCHEDULE AT A GLANCETUES., JAN. 21

6:30 – 9:00 am Continental Breakfast 6:30 am – 6:30 pm Registration Open 7 am – 5 pm Full Day Seminar on Wheels 9:00 am – 4 pm SAFE Golf Tournament 2:30 – 5 pm STMA Academy: 400+ level education included in full

conference price 3:30 – 7:30 pm STMA Certification Exam 6 – 9 pm Chapter Officer Training (includes dinner)

WED., JAN. 227 – 8 am Continental Breakfast 7 am – 6:30 pm Registration Open at Henry B. Gonzalez Convention

Center8 – 9:15 am General Session (New Time!): STMA Past, Present and

Future. Keynote Address: “Skills to Survive in the Future” – Dr. RickRigsby, Educator & Former Broadcaster

9:30 am – 12 pm Conference Education 12 – 2 pm Break12 – 2 pm Women’s Forum Lunch: New Time & Format!2 – 5 pm Conference Education 5:15 – 6:15 pm Conference Networking Sessions 6:30 – 7:00 pm First-Timers Reception7 – 10 pm Welcome Reception & Casino Night

THURS., JAN. 23 6:45 – 7:45 am Certification Breakfast

7 – 8 am Continental Breakfast 7 am – 6:30 pm Registration Open 8 am – 12 pm Conference Education & Student Track12 – 1:15 pm Annual Meeting & Lunch 1:30 – 6:30 pm SAFE Silent Auction on the trade show floor1:30 – 7 pm STMA Exhibition - Dessert and Reception2 – 6 pm Committee meetings on the trade show floor

FRI., JAN. 24 7 – 8 am Continental Breakfast 7 – 8 am Past President’s Breakfast 7 am – 1 pm Registration Open 8:30 – 10:00 am Conference Education 8 – 10:30 am Student Challenge 9 – 10 am Commercial Member Meeting 10 am – 12:30 pm Silent Auction on the trade show floor10 am – 1 pm Exhibition Open with Lunch, Innovative Sessions12 – 1 pm Student Luncheon New Event!1 – 5 pm Half Day Seminar on Wheels New Time!1:15 – 3 pm Conference Education 2 – 3 pm Riverwalk Horticultural Tour via barge (1st departure) New

Event!2:30 – 3:30 pm Riverwalk Horticultural Tour via barge (2nd depar-

ture) New Event! 3 pm – 5 SAFE 5K Run/Walk New Event!6:30 – 10 pm STMA Reception, Live Auction and Awards Banquet

SAT., JAN. 25 8 am – 12 pm STMA Certification Exam 8 am – 1 pm ASBA Certification Exam

STMA announces its Conference Schedule

OCTOBER 15 MARKS the deadline to submit applications for sev-eral of STMA’s programs. To access the applications, go on line atwww.STMA.org

Field of the YearThis highly competitive program recognizes the work of sports

turf managers for five field types: Baseball, Football, Soccer, Soft-ball and Sporting Grounds. For each field type, awards may begiven in three categories: Professional, College and University,and Schools and Parks.

Founders AwardsSTMA’s Founders’ Awards are named after its four founders.

These awards are STMA’s most prestigious and recognize thosemembers who have made significant contributions to STMA or tothe profession.

Innovative AwardsOpen to commercial members whose companies are exhibit-

ing at the annual conference, these awards highlight significantadvancements in technology, products and services that improvethe sports turf management profession.

Student ScholarshipsFunded through The SAFE Foundation, undergraduate and grad-

uate scholarships are awarded to high achieving students pursuingdegrees in sports turf management or turfgrass research.

Educational GrantsAlso funded through The SAFE Foundation, two grants are

available: one for a turfgrass student who has completed an in-ternship, and one for a practitioner to fund travel expenses to theannual STMA Conference.

Important STMA Deadline: October 15

SportsTurf 43

STMA Affiliated Chapters Contact InformationWelcome to the newly formed Indiana Chapter!The chapter is now in re-established after closingin 2005. Its officers are President Joey Steven-son, Indianapolis Indians; Vice-President ClaytonDame, Goebel Soccer Complex; Secretary AndyGossel, Covenant Christian High School; andTreasurer Evan Buckley.

Sports Turf Managers Association of Arizona:www.azstma.org

Colorado Sports Turf Managers Association:www.cstma.org

Florida #1 Chapter (South): 305-235-5101(Bruce Bates) or Tom Curran CTomSell@aol.com

Florida #2 Chapter (North): 850-580-4026,John Mascaro, john@turf-tec.com

Florida #3 Chapter (Central): 407-518-2347,Scott Grace, scott@sundome.org

Gateway Chapter Sports Turf ManagersAssociation: www.gatewaystma.org.

Georgia Sports Turf Managers Association:www.gstma.org.

Greater L.A. Basin Chapter of the Sports TurfManagers Association: www.stmalabasin.com.

Illinois Chapter STMA: www.ILSTMA.org.

Intermountain Chapter of the Sports Turf Man-agers Association: http://imstma.blogspot.com/ Indiana - indianastma@gmail.com

Iowa Sports Turf Managers Association:www.iowaturfgrass.org.

Kentucky Sports Turf Managers Association:www.kystma.org.

Keystone Athletic Field Managers Org.(KAFMO/STMA): www.kafmo.org.

Michigan Sports Turf Managers Association(MiSTMA): www.mistma.org.

Minnesota Park and Sports Turf Managers As-sociation: www.mpstma.org

MO-KAN Sports Turf Managers Association:www.mokanstma.com.

Nebraska Sports Turf Managers Association:sphillips4@unlnotes.unl.edu

New England STMA (NESTMA):www.nestma.org.

Sports Field Managers Association of NewJersey: www.sfmanj.org.

Sports Turf Managers of New York:www.stmony.org.

North Carolina Chapter of STMA:www.ncsportsturf.org.

Northern California STMA: www.norcalstma.org.

Ohio Sports Turf Managers Association(OSTMA): www.ostma.org.

Oklahoma Chapter STMA: 405-744-5729; Con-tact: Dr. Justin Moss okstma@gmail.com

Oregon STMA Chapter: www.oregonsportsturf-managers.org oregonstma@gmail.com

Ozarks STMA: www.ozarksstma.org.

Pacific Northwest Sports Turf Managers Asso-ciation: www.pnwstma.org.

Southern California Chapter:www.socalstma.com.

South Carolina Chapter of STMA:www.scstma.org.

Tennessee Valley Sports Turf Managers Asso-ciation (TVSTMA): www.tvstma.com.

Texas Sports Turf Managers Association:www.txstma.org

Virginia Sports Turf Managers Association:www.vstma.org.

Wisconsin Sports Turf Managers Association:www.wstma.org.

Chapter Sponsors

STMA IS NOW OFFERING a numberof incentives to new members and a refer-ral bonus program, both designed to helpthe association build on its continuedgrowth.

New Member BenefitsNew members—those individuals who

have not been an STMA national mem-ber since 2000—are now eligible to re-ceive a free conference registration(valued at $375, to be used within 3 years)when they purchase an STMA member-ship. This new member offer is valid forthe association’s sports turf manager andcommercial categories, including individ-uals at the associate level (sports turf man-ager and commercial associates).Unfortunately, new affiliate and studentmembers are not eligible for the free con-ference registration benefit.

Those members who joined in 2013,especially those individuals who signed upduring the association’s recent prorated

dues promotion, are eligible for the freeconference registration promotion if theyrenew for 2014.

To see if you qualify for the freeconference promotion, please visitwww.STMA .org or call the STMA officeat 800. 323.3875.

STMA Referral RewardsAll STMA members are eligible for the

association’s new referral rewards program.Any current member who refers a newqualifying individual that signs up for amembership will receive a $100 voucherthat can be used on a variety of items, in-cluding STMA merchandise, conferenceregistration fees or membership dues. Thereis no limit to the number of new recruits amember can refer; he/she will receive the$100 voucher incentive for each new per-son they refer who signs up.

Stay tuned for more details atwww.STMA.org. n

STMA introduces new Membership Incentives, Referral Rewards

44 SportsTurf | September 2013 www.sportsturfonline.com

Marketplace

Also, remember it is one thing to germi-nate the overseeded grass; it is a whole otherprocess to get it to establish enough to actu-ally tolerate traffic and persist. You can al-ways add a bit more seed to touch upworn/thin areas but you can never go backand regain the warmer days and longer pe-riod of sunlight that might be lost due to alate start. Some managers have used germi-nation blankets and field covers to helplater in the season but those are not idealsolutions compared to the natural growingconditions Mother Nature provides in Sep-tember and early October.

Lastly, if you plan for only one seedingdate, then it is advisable to make sure youseed in two directions, seeding the borderswith a drop spreader (if you want a nicecrisp edge) and the interior can be plantedwith a drop or broadcast spreader.

TO CULTIVATE OR NOT?This is a highly debatable question when

it comes to overseeding preparations. Theresearch in this area is inconclusive but al-most never negative in terms of overseedingsuccess or bermudagrass survival. Remem-

ber, seed soil contact is a critical factor forsuccess. Where excess thatch is not an issue,many turf managers have had good successwith broadcasting seed and then followingwith moderate sand topdressing and drag-ging the seed/sand into the canopy with adrag implement (flexible drag, brush, etc.).Otherwise, a cultivation/coring about 2-3weeks before the intended initial overseed-ing event is advisable.

GOING BACK TO BERMUDA?Managers of bermudagrass fields work

hard to get back to nearly 100% bermuda-grass, at least for part of the summer. Thiswill help ensure a good bermudagrass baseand better overall long-term field perform-ance. Thus, a grass species that transitionseasily or the use of chemical transitioningherbicides is recommended. This topic,however, is a whole article in itself. n

Cale Bigelow, PhD, is an associate profes-sor of agronomy for the Purdue UniversityTurf Science program.

Continued from page 15

SportsTurf 45www.stma.org

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46 SportsTurf | September 2013 www.sportsturfonline.com

BY DR. GRADY MILLERProfessor, North Carolina

State University

Questions?Send them to Grady Miller at

North Carolina State University,Box 7620, Raleigh, NC 27695-

7620, or emailgrady_miller@ncsu.edu

Or, send your question to

David Minner at Iowa State University, 106 Horti-

culture Hall, Ames, IA 50011 or email

dminner@iastate.edu.

T HIS Q&A requires a pro-logue to introduce a greatstory about teamwork. It

starts with Dr. Dave Minner at IowaState getting a question (with re-lated images) from a diagnostic labon unusual symptoms that wereseen on a bermudagrass field. Hehad a couple of theories but since hedoes not encounter bermudagrassturf as much as I do, he passed thequestion on to me. I had a couple ofideas as to the cause but I decidedthe symptoms were not the bestmatch for validating my theories.

So I decided to share the ques-tion with Dr. Dennis Martin, pro-fessor & turfgrass extensionspecialist at Oklahoma State Uni-versity. Dr. Martin immediately hadtwo causal hypotheses but wantedadditional information from theturf managers before coming to asingle conclusion. Once the culturalconditions were reported back tohim, his first hypothesis seemed tobe the most appropriate, so he of-fered his diagnosis and treatmentbased on his experiences. Five pro-fessionals later (and just a few daysin-between), the mystery seemedsolved and a course of action rec-ommended. That is networking andteamwork at its best.

The Question:The attached images illustrate

an issue on a bermudagrass soccerfield in northeast Missouri. Thegrass is producing aerial growththat is tufted and showing multipletillers. I did not find any bermuda-grass mites and no evidence of dis-ease. The field is soil based,established about 10 years ago withQuickstand bermudagrass, but hassince been overseeded with someof the newer seeded varieties. Anyidea at all what would cause thegrass to do this?

Dr. Barb Corwin, Turfgrass Di-agnostics LLC

Well, my first thought, whichwas also similar to Dr. Corwin’s,was bermudagrass mites. I haveseen my share of mite symptoms,but when I see mite activity it isnormally on green, growingshoots. From the pictures it lookslike the symptoms were associatedonly with brown tissue. So, twoturf professionals thought perhapsmites, but in the back of my mindit did not seem to be the correctdiagnosis.

This is when I decided to getanother opinion and sent the ques-tion/images to Dr. Martin. Heprovided the following comments:

“Was this stand overseeded withryegrass in fall? The reason I ask isthat this unusual growth patternon bermudagrass is often exhibitedwhen the early season shootgrowth of bermudagrass elongatesabove the shading canopy of theryegrass. As such a ‘palm tree likeeffect’ can often be produced inthe bermudagrass stand whicheventually disappears as those earlyseason shoots senesce or mowingheight is lowered and they are cutoff and removed.

“The second item to explore ismite injury. I agree with Grady’scomment about often seeing a pro-fusion of green tissue associatedwith mite injury. I just don’t seethe extreme internode stacking andshoot stunting that I generally as-sociate with mite injury inbermudagrass. We have had a greatdeal of mite injury in bermuda-grass this year. When droughtstress strikes many of the shootsdie due to disruption of the vascu-lar system and one can see a lot ofbrown tufts of dead grass. In thecase of the grass in these imagesthere is just not the extreme in-ternode stacking that I am used toseeing with mite injury so I believewe are perhaps looking more at the

former case or something else thatproduces symptoms consistentwith those of bermudagrass com-peting with an overseeded rye-grass.”

Dr. Martin’s question aboutoverseeding seemed important andI did not know the answer. So, Iasked Dr. Corwin, who asked thefield manager, and verified that thefield was overseeded with perennialryegrass in the previous fall. Theryegrass was subsequently sprayedout with Revolver herbicide inearly June. The field manager alsoadded that the area experienced awet April and May.

The conclusion was that thecase history concerning the rye-grass overseeding was very telling.While we cannot be 100% certain,the fact that ryegrass overseedingwas used on that site and that thegrowth habit alterations weresomewhat consistent with thatseen at many other bermudagrassfields that were overseeded lentsupport to Dr. Martin’s first hy-pothesis. Dr. Martin suggested thatthe sports field manager just pro-ceed with the normal complementof management practices and con-tinue to scout and monitor. If thetheory proves to be true, nochange in management practiceswould be necessary. n

Team PlayQ&A

When droughtstress strikesmany of theshoots die due todisruption of thevascular systemand one can see alot of brown tuftsof dead grass.