MLB Youth Academy Field Day

Compton, Ca:  On a typical beautiful weekend day  in Southern California, 40+ local youth and sports turf managers spent the day taking part in a "hands on" field maintenance training event held at the Academy.  We had Luke Yoder, Head Groundskeeper with the Padres , Kyle Waters from the Home Depot Center, Erik Frey from STS and myself on hand to offer advise on mound, infield, turf care, mowing and logo painting.  Moving in groups to different stations, we were able to expose the attendees to a wide variety of field maintenance techniques.   What was cool about this event is that 30 from the group were teenagers... and all were excited about the hands on program.  The event was FREE to the local communities and sponsored by Gail Materials who provided a wonderful lunch for us.  

Darrell Miller, Executive Director of the Urban Youth Academy and his staff assisted with logistics and registration.  It was a very fun learning event because the Kids attending were truly excited about the profession of groundskeeper.  After the seminar was over we had 10 high school students approach us to ask about how to make the profession a career.  I am convinced this is a great way to plant the seeds for future sport turf managers in our industry.  The MLB Academies will become the avenue in providing opportunities to those that may be less fortunate than others and those opportunnities will be in many areas of baseball operations with an emphasis on groundskeeping. God blessed us with great weather today and a great turnout for the event.  We are currently working on the next sports turf training event which will be a 3 to 4 day seminar this winter that will offer credits from the local high school through a vo-tech type program.  Its going to be exciting!