UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When the Nittany Lions take the field for this year's Homecoming game on Oct. 8, Beaver Stadium spectators and television viewers alike will watch the team play on a vibrant, green athletic field, carefully manicured and painted with precision for its game-day glory.
What fans may not realize is that Penn State students are part of the pregame preparation needed to keep the grassy venue an impressive and resilient playing field. During each academic year, there are typically 10 to 15 students from Penn State's turfgrass science major putting their academic knowledge into play on the Beaver Stadium field. Working alongside the full-time athletic grounds crew, these part-time student workers are part of the turf maintenance team that keeps the field looking great for every game.
"It's a big benefit to be able to hire turfgrass student workers for the stadium," said Nate Miller, assistant athletic fields supervisor for Penn State. "There's a whole training aspect to hiring someone who hasn't worked on a football field. These students come to us understanding things already."
The students on the stadium grounds crew participate in a wide variety of maintenance tasks, including mowing, seeding, aerating, fertilizing and repairing the turf. To prepare for a home game, crew members focus on general field maintenance early in the week and then turn their attention to painting and re-lining the field one to two times in the days leading up to the game.
"Working at Beaver Stadium has really broadened our horizons," said Darek Eckley, of Milesburg, Pennsylvania, a junior turfgrass science student in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "I like how we're learning from one of the best grounds crews in the country — and we get to go to class in one of the best schools in the country for this program. It's the best of both worlds."
The fall football season is a busy time for Penn State's athletic grounds staff, with crew members assigned to several locations. The crew is responsible for maintaining not only the stadium field, but also the grass parking areas surrounding Beaver Stadium, and the many other collegiate sports fields, golf courses and intramural athletic fields located on campus. Students from the turfgrass program are trusted team members in fulfilling these responsibilities.
"We have valuable mowers and equipment, so you don't want just anyone to operate them, you need someone competent," said Miller. "And with all the athletic acres that we have at Penn State, students are the eyes for a lot of the ground we cover. On any given week, a student worker may be one of the only people to look at the intramural fields from wall-to-wall, so if there's disease or another problem, we rely on them to relay that to us."