Former Students Win Field of the Year!

Staff (left to right) Braeden Gwalchmai, Brian Cafferty, Matthew Sarault, and Head Groundskeeper Guy Vaillancourt receive CAN AM Field of the Year 2018 from league commissioner, Miles Wolff. Photo courtesy of Marc LaFleur.

Guy Vaillancourt and Matthew Sarault both completed the Baseball Field Management certificate course in later summer 2018. And they just won a major award!

The self-paced online certificate course covers topics like field layout, infield skins and pitcher’s mounds, turfgrass maintenance, and pest management. Perfect for groundskeepers, baseball coaches and anybody else interested in baseball or softball field maintenance, the lecture material is offered as audio slideshows and instructional videos. The course material is assessed by students completing quizzes and games.

Another thing Guy and Matthew have in common is that they’re also groundskeepers at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Park, Ottawa, Canada, home to the Champions Baseball Club. Guy, the head groundskeeper, has guided his staff to CAN AM Field of the Year awards in 2015, 2016 and 2018.  See OTTAWA’S RCGT PARK NAMED PLAYING FIELD OF THE YEAR.

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Starting a New Chapter

By Amanda Folck

Hi Everyone!

Today is my last day working with Pam Sherratt as a Turfgrass Student Assistant. It is a huge honor to work with Pam and many of the students, people from the turfgrass industry plus faculty and staff that I get the pleasure to work with during my two years at Ohio State. I am graduating on May 7 and receiving my Bachelors of Science degree in Turfgrass and minor in Plant Pathology. I have accepted Continue reading

Amanda Folck receives CFAES Outstanding Student Employee

IMG_7015aOn April 7th, the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) hosted the 2016 Recognition Banquet. This banquet recognize students, faculty, staff and supporters in the college for their many accomplishments.

Amanda Folck (pictured left, with Dr. Karl Danneberger & Pam Sherratt) received the Outstanding Student Employee award from CFAES. Continue reading

About Me: Amanda Folck

Hello Everyone!
IMG_0212My name is Amanda Folck. I recently graduated from Clark State Community College in May 2015 with a Associate of Science Degree in Transfer Science and currently a Senior at The Ohio State University in Turfgrass Science. My background of work includes working at Folck Family Farm in
Mechanicsburg, Ohio with my family for about 10 years from taking care of the strawberries and the grounds of the farm to showing our award-winning show pigs. I have Continue reading

Playability: Firmness

A10839_1_fullGolf has increasingly moved toward firmer surfaces primarily for putting greens but also fairways.  Increasing firmness makes golf more difficult for the better players.  Firm greens for example tend to be fast, are not as receptive to golf shots (less holding characteristics).  Firmness increases with a decrease in soil moisture.  Related to that, organic matter or thatch can reduce firmness (make greens softer) so managing or removing organic matter is important.  Measuring firmness is seen with the demonstration in the video below by Karl Danneberger: Continue reading

Online Courses for OSU Students

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On Monday June 15th the summer online course HCS 3370 begins! This online course covers topics on athletic field management  and is offered via short lectures, instructional videos and podcasts. Assessment is done by quizzes, games and an assignment.

The course has 6 modules:

  • An introduction to sports turf management
  • Athletic field construction
  • Turfgrasses
  • Best management practices
  • Turf problems
  • Baseball fields

Students from all over the university have taken this course, which is offered in both maymester and summer. You don’t have to be a turf expert – just someone with an interest in sports and science, who’d like to know how they get those athletic fields ready for play!