For the Love of the Land

In her hand was the Sports Turf Manager Association Schools and Parks Soccer Field of the Year Award, which she had received a moment earlier from Allen Johnson, the organization’s president, who, by the way, expertly maintains the playing surface at Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers.

It was truly like a dream, but the moment — the culmination of diligence, dedication, and plain ol’ hard work — was as real as it gets.

She’d come so far, she thought, and she belonged.  She indisputably belonged. She had no doubt.

When Allison Moyer, Collegiate’s 35-year-old grounds supervisor, reflects on that moment when Field 12 at the Robins Campus — the Charlie Blair Soccer Field — was honored, she does so with pride and humility.

She knows full well, you see, that the plaque she accepted this past January 22 represents the combined efforts of the team which she has headed since she came on board nine years ago.

“Collegiate’s standards (for athletic fields) are some of the highest out there,” Allison explained.  “Our level of expectation is like a college level. We put such care into our fields. We don’t cut corners.  STMA is sets the standard in the (turf management) industry.  They want professionalism. For them to choose Collegiate is a really big honor.”

Allison figures that application process that resulted in national recognition consumed almost 40 hours. She had to calculate such technical aspects as the results of soil tests, fertilizer costs, use of available resources, and hours her crew spent working on Field 12. She also wrote an essay focusing on the intangibles: pride in workmanship, dedication, industriousness, cohesion of effort, and love of the land.

“The STMA award is special,” said Scott Carson, director of facilities management and construction.  “It puts the school out there amongst a broad array of facilities nationwide that have premier maintenance operations. It speaks to the extraordinary nature with which Allison, the physical plant, and the athletics department address the needs of Field 12 and the rest of our playing surfaces. We take great care and pride in maintaining these fields, keeping them a showplace for Collegiate, and making them safe and reliable for all of our athletes.”
    
If the STMA award wasn’t predestined, Allison’s chosen vocation probably was. She grew up on a vegetable farm just south of the town of Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.  She loved the ambiance and reveled in the process, but when she headed off to Virginia Tech, her father, Chuck Tankard, gave her strict orders.

“He said I could major in anything I wanted…except farming,” Allison recalls with a laugh. “So, of course, I went into the next closest thing: crop and field environmental science with a turf management emphasis and a double major in horticulture.”

For three years after college, she worked for Landscape Supply Inc. Collegiate was one of her accounts.  When the grounds supervisor job opened, Robert Moore, assistant director of facilities, suggested she apply.  The rest, shall we say, is history.

Allison supervises a staff of six.  Robyn Hartley is the horticulturist.  Bryant Logan handles irrigation.  George Cooke, Jesse Garrant, A.J. Johnson, and Tito Fortis maintain the grounds.

“We take care of everything green and outside,” Allison says.  “That includes the fields, lawns, plants, patios, and outside trash cans. The landscape at the school has grown astronomically.  We try to be as green as possible.  We top dress with an organic compost-sand mixture to try to reduce the amount of fertilizer we use.  We try different mowing patterns.
    
“We have a tight-knit crew.  I give them tons of credit. We look out for each other. They make our program what it is by taking pride in in.  I might come up with the plan, but without them, it wouldn’t be possible.”

Allison is hardly the type of manager who gives directions, then retreats to her office.

“Whenever anybody’s on vacation, I’m that person for that week,” she said.
“Then, when people aren’t on vacation, it’s great, because I can pop in and work on whatever they’re working on for an hour or two here and there. Anything I ask them to do, I do myself.  I’ll prune.  I’ll mulch.  I’ll mow. I’m not just barking orders.  We do as much teamwork as possible.”

Collegiate has roughly 30 acres of heavily-used athletic fields.  Preparing them for the fall following activity in the spring and summer isn’t for the faint of heart.  There’s the inevitable wear-and-tear in addition to issues created by dry weather and the finite amount of water available.

“The challenges are a function of use: students wearing out the middle of fields and the goal mouth,” Allison said. “In the summertime, our biggest goal is to grow those centers back in. We’re pushing the grass to get the centers filled back in so we have these great surfaces when the students come back.

“When I first came here, we’d get a truckload –1000 yards – of sod every summer. In 2014, we used 50 yards.  In 2015, we didn’t use any sod.  My goal is to get field health so good that fields don’t wear out as quickly as they did in the past.”

In her profession, Allison is something of an anomaly, as evidenced by her presence in San Diego where the vast majority of the 1200 or so field managers was male and, well, older than 35.  She isn’t fazed by the demographics, and she certainly isn’t intimidated any more so than she was at Virginia Tech where she was one of very few women in her major.  After all, then and now, she’s doing what she truly enjoys, each day, all day.

“My passion is the turf,” she said. “I love the athletics part of it…seeing kids out there making memories on the fields.  Agriculture is my love. I started working with a potato grater when I was 11 years old with my dad. This is back to my roots. Growing up on a farm definitely drew me to this passion.”
                               -- Weldon Bradshaw