March 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 65

PARKS & RECREATION AT WORK

MAINTENANCE

On a Firm Footing
New methods for sports turf managers
to ensure good field conditions

By Elizabeth Beard

W

ith 86 playing fields at 48 sites, not to
mention 20 lawn areas and 6 clay tennis
courts, Sports Turf Manager Vince Henderson with the Henrico County, Virginia, Division of Parks and Recreation would
seem to have his hands full.
" If I had to, I could actually drive to every site that I have in
the county in a day, but I couldn't get out of the truck and look
at them all, " Henderson chuckles. Yet for his most heavily used
sports fields, Henderson can tell you exactly what their conditions are like, because he uses a tool called the " Playing Conditions Index " to track their usage and condition before each
sports event.
" It's a way to assess your fields so that you could convey that
message to the media and to your user groups to tell them the
condition of the field, " Henderson explains. " It's a good systematic approach to make sure that you're seeing everything that
you should see and you're taking into consideration all of the
different factors that may play a part in what kind of condition
that field is in. "

The Playing Conditions Index (PCI) was developed by the
Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) to assess the playability of athletic fields used for everything from youth soccer
to professional football at any given moment in time, according to Certified Sports Field Manager Dave Pinsonneault, CPRP,
operations manager for public works in the Town of Lexington,
Massachusetts.
" You can look at a field that might look perfectly green but
once you start playing on it, it doesn't have deep roots and
the turf is ripping out, " Pinsonneault says. " We really want to
promote getting a sound, playable, well-maintained surface.
That's really the goal and if it looks good after that, that's great.
You want to make sure you're doing what you can to provide
that fi rm footing when you need it and the give when you need
it on a field. "
The PCI is relatively new and still being tried out by experts in the field. It consists of a three-page worksheet, available to STMA members on their website, with questions about
long-term issues such as what the field is used for and the extent of field turf manager's experience, as well as short-term

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