Weathering the storms: How Md. SoccerPlex stayed open last weekend amid six inches of rain

From SoccerWire.com on Oct. 18:  

Weathering the Storm: How SoccerPlex Fields Stayed Open

By Charles Boehm / October 18, 2013

By Charles Boehm

WASHINGTON – Some call it the “curse of Columbus Day weekend soccer,” and it was back with a vengeance this year: Last week more rain fell on the Washington, D.C. area in a five-day period than had fallen throughout the previous three months combined.

Fuelled in large part by the remnants of Tropical Storm Karen as it stalled in the Atlantic Ocean just offshore from the Mid-Atlantic coast, the heavy, sustained precipitation inflicted havoc on the region’s scheduled soccer events.

With several field complexes closed due to saturated playing surfaces, tournaments had to be cancelled or curtailed. Even D.C. United were affected, as their match against the Philadelphia Union at RFK Stadium became a soggy mess in monsoon-like conditions on Saturday night.

But at the Maryland SoccerPlex, it was almost business as usual: The vast majority of the Discovery Cup youth tournament went ahead as scheduled on eight of the facility’s natural-grass fields despite more than six inches of rain in some areas.

“We played on [Fields] 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 17 and [synthetic]turf [Fields] 18, 19, 20,” said SoccerPlex executive director Trish Heffelfinger in an email to SoccerWire.com. “We cancelled our younger age groups so that we could give every team in U-12 (11v11) to U-19 [age groups] two 60-minute games.

“It is remarkable in view of the amount of rain, 5.85 [inches] in five days…From a historic standpoint this was one of the most challenging situations. Not only did we have a significant accumulation of rain but we also had no drying. It was cloudy, cool and continued to drizzle or mist the entire weekend.”

It seems that the first phase of a five-year, multi-million-dollar fields renovation process has reaped immediate benefits.

[ +Read more about Md. SoccerPlex’s five-year improvement project here ]

“We’re not there completely, but we’re getting there,” SoccerPlex sports turf managerJerad Minnick told SoccerWire.com. “We’ve made major progress even from summer of last year. If this was last October, we would’ve had one grass field open. So to have eight, that’s a dramatic improvement.”

Previously, only Maureen Hendricks Field, the SoccerPlex’s showcase stadium, had a grass surface capable of all-weather use, thanks to sand-based soil that allows it to drain rainfall at a rate comparable to artificial turf. The rest of the complex’s fields were “native-soil,” alluding to a heavy clay composition underneath the grass that tends to hold water and sometimes leads to rainouts after less than an inch of precipitation.

But over the summer Minnick and his staff converted Fields No. 14 and No. 17 to a sand base and laid down four new varieties of Bermuda to test their performance side-by-side. Elsewhere, five other native-soil fields were equipped with an innovative system of underground drainage channels to speed water away from the playing surface so play could continue under a wider variety of weather conditions.

And the Discovery Cup showed just what a difference it all made.

“Our goal was to be able to play in up to three inches [of rain]. We played after six,” said Minnick of the five adapted native-soil fields. “They did get worn, especially with the last half-inch on Saturday night, but it’s nothing that we can’t deal with.

“It’s amazing how our perception changes or our expectation level comes up because we’re able to increase the quality overall,” he added, noting that since their completion, none of the refurbished fields have been closed due to rainfall. “We didn’t even realize how well it was going to work – we knew it was going to work, but we just didn’t know yet to the extent that it was going to work.”

For Minnick and the rest of the SoccerPlex staff, it’s a rewarding signpost in their long-term journey towards a life without rainouts – and a vindication of their philosophy that grass fields, if properly managed and maintained, can handle almost as much use as synthetic turf, even in heavy rains, and at less cost.

“It’s exciting – it’s exciting not just for the industry but for clubs and players and parents – it saves money and it means we’re moving in the right direction,” said Minnick. “We have more options, we have better technologies, we have better [turfgrass] genetics.

“We just have to get away from the thought that grass fields can’t take more. Who decided that?” he added. “Nothing is impossible, it just hasn’t been done yet. We have the techniques, we just have to change the thinking…It’s awesome for our fields that we get to try out all these things – we’re really dedicated to trying to make fields better for our patrons.”

Or as Heffelfinger put it: “We have had one more opportunity to learn what is possible.”

Md. turf guru makes history as keynote at top European groundskeepers seminar

From Soccerwire.com:  By Charles Boehm / October 7, 2013  

By Charles Boehm

WASHINGTON – The U.S. soccer community often looks east to Europe for information and inspiration, and the game’s leading groundskeepers tend to do the same.

But this week an American turfgrass guru will be the star speaker at one of Europe’s biggest meetings of professional groundskeepers, sharing the philosophies and skills he’s developed over 15 years of managing sports fields in this country’s heartland.

On Wednesday, Maryland SoccerPlex sports turf manager Jerad Minnick will deliver the keynote address at the European Stadium and Safety Management Association’s head grounds manager seminar in Porto, Portugal.

ESSMA is a partner organization of UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) and Minnick can expect a warm welcome as he discusses the “grass field revolution” he sees unfolding across the sports world amid new technologies for growing, maintaining and regenerating natural surfaces.

“We need to keep growing innovation and spreading a positive message about the possibilities of grass fields,” Minnick told SoccerWire.com via email over the weekend. “The more idea-sharing and technology we employ, the bigger the possibilities become.

“My keynote is taking that a bit further to encourage and illustrate the importance to ‘think different.’”

While such appearances tend to suggest peak mastery in one’s field, Minnick approaches his work from a humble, curious perspective, regularly praising his European counterparts’ high levels of expertise and ingenuity. So he’s making practical use of his trans-Atlantic trip by visiting a long list of top stadiums and sports facilities in England and Spain over the course of two weeks.

Minnick visited with his colleagues at London’s colossal Wembley Stadium, home of the English national team, and attended the NFL game that took place there on Sept. 29, then hustled through an ambitious itinerary that included the homes and/or training facilities of the Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday football clubs as well as the Headingley Carnegie and Twickenham rugby stadiums, the Sports Turf Research Institute and St. George’s Park, the chief training center of the English Football Association.

And on his way to Portugal, he also stopped in at Real Madrid to visit Paul Burgess, a friend who serves as “chief of pitch maintenance” at the Spanish powerhouse.

It’s a turf pilgrimage of sorts that’s become an annual practice for Minnick, who routinely works wonders on the SoccerPlex’s showcase stadium, Maureen Hendricks Field (home of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit), as well as the 21 high-quality fields that surround it.

“The best part of visiting colleagues is how warm and open they are,” he wrote to SoccerWire.com. “It’s just a lot to have an American come in and want to talk and share when they are in the heart of the season and winter preparation is taking place. For example: Mr. [Anthony] Stones at Wembley had just hosted American football the night before. Mr. [Paul] Ashcroft at Emirates [Stadium] was hosting training for the Italian team [Napoli] Arsenal was playing the next night in Champions League.

“Every training ground was either hosting training or preparing for training. The Leeds Rugby guys were preparing for a big game that night. Etc, etc. And for me, that’s what is most helpful; everyone being open and sharing ideas when under the highest demands. Every field I saw was in immaculate shape. And every head grounds manager had a positive and driven attitude.”

Though three of his his facility’s fields feature artificial turf, Minnick is a devoted advocate of natural surfaces and urges his industry to put aside old ideas about the levels of traffic and use that grass can bear.

“Several head grounds managers around the world are proving that so much more is possible, many times at LESS expense!!” Minnick explained.

“Ultimately, my keynote is about the bright future for our industry…Soon the answer to the questions about grass fields will turn from ‘Grass can’t take it’ to the question instead being, ‘How many more events can we manage this year?’”

With the phrase “Evolution is changing the answer. A revolution is changing the question,” as his mantra, Minnick hails the work of several European companies who are designing specialized new methods and equipment to maintain top-quality grass fields that allow for more hours of play – and under more demanding conditions – than ever.

“Any industry improves by sharing ideas and communicating,” he said. “Our industry is the same. And the field quality across the UK illustrates that.

“[Apple co-founder] Steve Jobs talked about how important it is for people to collect new experiences and learn other perspectives in order to create innovation. Well, when these guys open their time and share and show me around, it hopefully leads to more innovation for SoccerPlex and for American grass fields.”

[ +Learn more about Minnick’s trip by visiting his blog, growinggreengrass.net, where he’s posting travelogues, photos and observations from his European trip ]