Football field given golf course makeover

The grounds crew for Black Diamond Ranch undertook a four-step process to rejuvenate Citrus High's football field.

By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 1, 2000

INVERNESS -- Jeff Tobin, structure and mechanical foreman, says he gave Black Diamond Ranch's golf maintenance staff a call recently for advice on how to revamp the Citrus High School football field.

"We'll come in and do it all for you," he says they told him. "They just brought their whole crew in."

They did four processes to the field. The first, Tobin said, was plugging it. The workers pulled plugs of grass out throughout the field to allow fertilizer and water to penetrate more easily.

The second step Tobin called verticutting. Long, vertical lines are cut through grass runners so they put out more runners, which stimulates grass growth.

Then they vacuumed the field and spread a thin layer of sand over it. That's called top dressing and, Tobin said, it "makes the field a lot smoother."

Finally, he said, they fertilized the field.

Tobin was delighted and impressed with Black Diamond Ranch's offer to do the high school field maintenance.

"They didn't hesitate," he said. "They jumped right in and said they would love to do it."

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