Merced Union High School District

The hands-on experience offered by the MUHSD turf and sports field management classes offered at Atwater and Golden Valley high schools catapulted up a level for a group of students who took a field trip to Los Angeles recently to work with the USC grounds crew to prepare the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum football field for the Trojans’ home opener against Missouri State.

 

Golden Valley seniors Greyson Dockstader and Cody Peterson and Atwater sophomores Jose Perez and Johnathon Warkentin were joined by their course instructors Kevin Magill (GV) and Dave Gossman (Atwater) as they worked closely with the USC grounds crew for three days, using professional equipment and meticulously prepping the field. The MUHSD contingent were then treated like VIPs as they were able to watch the football game on Saturday, Aug. 30.

 

“To have USC open their doors to us, as high school programs, and allow them to really take these students under their wings and make them part of their team, treat them like one of their own, it was amazing,” Gossman said. “(USC) just really went above and beyond in opening up doors and opportunities for them to explore, see what the profession is like, but also get hands-on learning. I mean, they got to do some things that's not common for visitors to do, and it was great.”

 

The CTE sports turf management program was started six years ago by Gossman at Atwater and aimed at giving students opportunities in landscaping and field management. Students have been able to work on sports fields around campus and Gossman has even set up projects for students to do in the community like repairing baseball and softball fields at Osborn Park. 

 

Gossman has also been able to arrange to bring students to work with the Arizona State University grounds crew and crews who work at Major League Baseball spring training facilities in Arizona during the summer. Gossman has been able to create connections by attending the Sports Turf Managers Association Conference yeas ago that has helped expand and create opportunities for his students.

 

“Arizona State invited me to come out, and then I hooked up with the Dodgers and White Sox at Camelback Ranch, and spent a week there,” Gossman said. “A lot of it was just learning and then gathering information to help start a program here at Atwater High and hope that it would expand out to the district or statewide. As teachers, we're trying to open doors for students so they can explore interests, and once they grab an interest, I believe they kind of take initiative to do what it takes to learn and develop skills. I give credit to our school and our district for allowing Mr. Magill and I the opportunity to learn, attend these conferences, and get kids involved and help us out, sometimes financially, to do this.”

 

Gossman says the Atwater sports turf management program ranges from 25 to 30 students each year. The students have worked with site grounds crew and have renovated the two softball fields and JV baseball field, including installing a new turfgrass infield with West Coast Turf. We also renovated the soccer field last spring. “The goal is to work with site on increased turf/field maintenance to upgrade fields to safe, quality playing fields for students and the community,” Gossman added.

 

Golden Valley offers two sections on sports turf management with 84 students enrolled each year. They currently manage the baseball field, softball field, both JV fields, and they help with the jumping pits for track. Students in the program were invited by the Fresno Grizzlies to help set up a field for a game last year. 

 

The Atwater and Golden Valley students arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday and then went to work on Thursday to prepare the field for Saturday’s game. They worked with the grounds crew to paint the end zones, hash marks, sponsor logos, and the center “SC” interlock. “It was like so much more than I even imagined it was going to be,” Dockstader said. “We started working at 6 o’clock in the morning and it's just a different environment out there that you just can’t describe. It's just awesome to be able to see all the actual professional equipment they have, how they do things, and it was really just a different experience being able to go see that. We also got to watch the game from the perspective of the ground keepers and where they're actually sitting during the game.”

 

Peterson says it was amazing to watch the crews constantly working to make the field look great. “They just have the field just constantly prepped, make it even after every game they vacuum the field, make sure all the grass and stuff that was kicked up during the game was cleared off,” Peterson said. “So they just start repairing and fixing what they need to do right away.”

 

Warkentin says it was a lot different than working on the fields on the Atwater campus. You can get away with a small mistake. Working at the coliseum was an opportunity to work on a grand scale. “Basically, if you mess up here, it’s honestly a small mistake, but if you mess up there, you got the whole field messed up,” he said. “And the thing I learned was just all the preciseness and just all the teamwork and effort it takes. It was really an inside look at everything they do to what you see on TV, which is the finished thing.”

 

Perez says he felt honored to represent his school and community on a big stage like that. “It’s a really good thing to know that I have that responsibility put on me, and I am trusted with that responsibility,” Perez said. “I am a person who can be trusted, not only here on campus, but I am able to be trusted somewhere else.”

 

The hope is Gossman and Magill can find more similar opportunities for their students. Magill said it was amazing watching his students apply what they learned and to be able to work hand-in-hand with professional grounds crew members. “Just seeing them enjoy it was a big one for us,” Magill said. “Them being able to be on that sideline, being able to look at the field before it started, and see it after, was something huge. But seeing them interact with professionals, I thought, was one of the most impactful things about the trip. To see the type of conversations they were having, the connections they made, the networking, tt really was a great experience.”

 

The students may have jobs waiting for them when they’re ready. “I think one of the greatest compliments that were given to us as teachers about the students was they came up to us and said, ‘Hey, we would hire any one of those four students,’” Gossman said. “That's a credit both to the students and their work ethic, their engagement during the opportunity, and also I think a credit to our programs.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.