Tour-on-Wheels
MSTMA held its annual Tour-on-Wheels
on July 22. Forty-eight MSTMA
members
attended the event. Members registered
and met at the University
of St. Thomas
where Coffee and donuts were provided
in the parking lot.
At 8:15 a.m. University of St. Thomas
hosts Roger Weinbrenner and Robert
Reed showed members St. Thomas’ new softball field. The group then
boarded the bus and traveled to the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank
Stadium where Mike McDonald,
Josh Graham and Andy Johnson led tours around the classic
new stadium.
The opening of TCF Bank Stadium
has made
this a fun year for University of Minnesota
Head Groundskeeper Mike
McDonald and his
assistants, Josh Graham and Andy Johnson.
Mike McDonald is a past president of the
Minnesota Sports Turf Managers
Association
and Josh Graham currently serves on the Board of Directors.
MSTMA members have taken advantage of an opportunity provided by McDonald and
the University of Minnesota to be a volunteer on the
Gopher Grounds Staff for home football games. McDonald hopes to offer
this opportunity for the 2010 season as well.
At 11:30 a.m. the bus headed for
Goosepond
Park in Oakdale where
Randy Bastyr talked
about and showed
where improvements
were made on
the
softball fields.
Attendees then went to Woodbury High School and had lunch. MSTMA President Paul Griffin talked to the group shortly after
lunch about the sodding and seeding that took place on a mammoth
project.
The well-fed group traveled to the State Capitol and looked at the
grounds. Jay Johnston talked about the way things get done around the
Capitol.
At 3:15 p.m. the group arrived at Macalester College. Jerry Nelson
hosted a tour of Macalester’s impressive inside sports facility and the
various fields outside.
The bus returned to the University of St. Thomas shortly after 4:00 p.m.
All destinations were informative and worth the trip.
THANK YOU
SPONSORS!
Special thanks
to our four sponsors of the event: Darrell Ervasti, D.
Ervasti Sales Co.; Tom Thul, The Tessman Company; Kevin Manley, JRK Seed
and All Pro Turf, and Joe Churchill, Reinders, Inc.
