Striping and LiningMIKE ANDRESEN, CERTIFIED SPORTS FIELD MANAGER, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Striping, lining and logos are thefinishing touches on your playingfield. Safety and playability must

come before aesthetics, but aesthetics area very important aspect of a sports turfmanager's job.

AccuracyIn striping and lining, accuracy is es-

sential. Games are won or lost by inches,and many of those inches are marked bywhat you've painted, and how preciselyyou've painted it.Ifyou're getting anew logo stencil, put

the extra time and money into getting onethat's detailed. Invest in quality paint andquality painting equipment, it will pay foritself in the long run. Don't be afraid totry out new paints and to work with yourpaint supplier to get the paint you want.

Logos are more than a pretty design.They project the image of your organiza-tion and your team. They're also a mar-keting tool. A great logo sells those shirts,hats and other paraphernalia that help fundthe program.

SpeedAfter accuracy, your second priority is

speed, because crew time is precious. Thebiggest factor in fast and accurate fieldpainting is in-ground markers. Placed atstrategic points, these markers eliminatethe need to establish base measuringpoints each time you paint. They may bepurchased or made, and the type requiredwill vary with the game.

For football, all of our in-ground mark-ers are located off the playing area of thefield. We cut I-II2-inch PVC pipe into sec-tions six to eight inches long. We sinkthese into the ground with the top of thePVC pipe approximately 1I4-inch belowthe grass line.

For soccer, the in-ground markers arelocated within the playing area. We use astore-bought, ground-socket marker thathas a cap on top. When sunk into theground, the top of this marker is right atthe soil line.

The covered top eliminates the chanceof a player sinking a shoe spike into theopen center of the marker. The cap comes

16 • SEPTEMBER 2001

off so we can slip in a purchased peg thathas string on it to run the lines. The sleeveis also used to hold the flags that mark thefield corners.

FootballWhen painting the lines

on our football field, we setour string lines and run thepainter right down thecenter of the string. Wepaint two inches on eachside of the string. Otherspaint a four-inch band at the edge of thestring. Overall, their lines will each be twoinches 'off' of our lines, but it's the con-sistency within the field that's important.

We paint the white lines on the fieldwith a Jiffy model 8,000 self-propelled,walk-behind line painter with a I2-gallontank. We mix our paint with water to a 1:1ratio, and it takes approximately 50 gal-lons of mix to paint the lines.

When temperatures drop in late fall, weadd a little alcohol to the paint. The ratiodiffers depending on weather conditions.The alcohol sucks the moisture out of thepaint and allows it to dry before it freezes.Alcohol is hard on the grass, but ourturfgrasses are dormant before we needto use it, and the rates are very small.

We paint all of the five-yard lines first,and then paint the sidelines so the painterwon't run over fresh paint. An in-groundmarker is located at each five-yard line onboth sides of the field. They are placedjust outside the three- foot border that theNCAA requires around the field. Thestring line is stretched across the field frommarker to marker.

The NCAA requires a four-inch gapbetween the yard lines and the sidelines,so the sideline string lines need to bestretched out when the yard lines arepainted. We place a four-inch piece ofaluminum beneath the "X" made by thesideline string and the yard-line string toset the space.

The sideline markers are located out-side the three-foot border. They are placedat the end of the field to set the horizontalline, and at the end of the endzone to cre-ate the vertical line.

Once line painting is complete, webreak into two crews: a logo crew and afield crew. Our field crew goes straight towork on the inside hashmarks. We havean in-ground marker on the back side ofeach endzone, and we run a string fromendzone to endzone to prepare the linefor the hashmarks. We use an aluminumstencil and paint with an airless sprayerplaced on the back of a small golf cart.100 feet of hose allows the cart to run offthe field, along the sideline. The angle ofthe slack in the hose keeps it from drag-

ging through the paint.Once the hashmarks are painted, we

move the two string lines to the top pointof the newly painted lines to position thenumbers. An in-ground marker nine yardsoff the sidelines verifies the placement. Weuse NFL style number stencils made ofheavy vinyl. They're mounted on analuminum frame to keep them stretchedout and in good condition. The crew startsat one end of the field and works to theopposite endzone.

Once the numbers are painted, the field-painting crew brings the hashmark sten-cil back out and paints the sidelinehashmarks. They proceed to paint thekickoff "X" on the 35-yard line and onthe three-yard Prescription Athletic Turf(PAT) hashmark line. This completes thewhite paint on the field.

The sideline strings remain down untilthe paint is dry. They are then moved outto paint the white three-foot border oneach side of the field. There are in-groundmarkers at each end of the field on bothsides to set these strings three feet out fromthe sideline.

While those two strings are down, wetake the shorter sideline string and meas-ure to make the coaches boxes and teamareas. We don't have in-ground markersin those areas, because wear is extensiveand we don't want any exposed PVC pipe.

Now the field-painting crew switchesto an airless sprayer with an I8-inch-widenozzle. They fill in the white paint in thethree-foot border, and in the six-foot-wideteam area and coaches box.

Our logo crew's motto is: "measuretwice and spray once." Rules require a

four-foot space between the sidelines andpainted areas. Because the endzone is 30feet deep, we've designed all of our logos22 feet high. The center endzone logo is71 feet long.

We draw a tape measure across the backof the endzone from sideline to sidelineand run a string line. We measure and puta string line on the center of the endzonelengthwise. To get the exact center of thelogo's dimensions, we measure and run astring line perpendicular to these lines,from the front of the endzone to the backof the endzone. This method is more ac-curate than measuring from the goal post.

Our logo stencils are made of vinyl andhave small holes punched in them. Theappropriate color paint is sprayed throughthe hole to create a dot of paint on the field.With the vinyl removed, outlining the logobecomes a connect the dots exercise.

We start at the center of the logo andwork out. In the heat, the vinyl will stretch.We don't want the stencil to be on the fieldany longer than necessary to avoid build-ing up excessive heat beneath it and yel-lowing of the turf. We work on one logoat a time, and finish it completely beforestarting the next one. Logos are complex;

most are copyrighted, and all must be ac-curate. We keep a copy of the logo on thefield as we paint.

We start by using aerosols of each ofour colors to paint any unique features orsmall details prior to coding out our logos.Then we paint with the airless sprayerequipped with a 4-inch wide tip.

•When temperatures drop in latefall, we add a little alcohol to thepaint. The ratio differs depending

on weather conditions.

•We select one color first and paint all

of that color before moving on. We alwaysfinish with white, so we can repair anymistakes. We only cover the tip of the grassplant with paint. Up close on the field, youcan see green under the paint. That's whatwe want to maintain for the health of theturfgrass.

Lowering sprayer pressure won't keepthe paint from pushing the grass down andworking down into the turf. It's better toraise the pressure. You will get finer drop-

lets that dry quicker and stay in place.We paint all the endzone logos first, and

then move to the field logos. For each one,we establish a center point using thecrossed string line method to ensure ac-curate placement.

When we installed a natural grass field,we changed from a center logo to two sidelogos to reduce additional stress on thehigh-traffic zone. It ltfts been effective.

Rules state that you can paint over theline markings - if the referees can see thelines clearly. The 25-, 30- and 35- yardlines bisect our on-field logos. We don'tpaint over the lines. Instead, we paint our

. logos around them. It's our subtle way ofemphasizing that the field exists for thegame.

Our field-painting crew finishes bystringing and painting the yellow restrain-ing line for the press. It runs six feet out-side of the three-foot border on the sides,and nine feet beyond the endzone. It ex-tends all the way around the field. It's therefor the safety of the players and the work-ing crews - the chain gang and the ref-erees.

We try to paint on Wednesday andThursday, and touch up on Friday for Sat-

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•• sSPORTS TURF MANAGER • 17

urday games. The team has a 2-112-hour Thursday afternoon practice, soany paint must be dry by noon. Ifweather conditions look poor for dry-ing, the painting schedule is movedforward.

SoccerOn a soccer field, one in-ground

socket is placed at the very center pointof the field. We remove the cap, dropin the string peg, and run the string outto the correct distance. We walk aroundthis string 'circle,' dotting the line withan aerosol can of paint. Then we goback and connect the dots.

Other in-ground sockets are placedat the comers of the field, at the length-wise sideline center points, and at theouter point of the penalty area on thesidelines. We don't put in-groundmarkers around the goal because it's ahigh-traffic area, so we must measureand line for the goal arcs and squareout from the goal mouth.

Keep the PerspectiveIf the press and the public see that

your field looks great, they'll think itis great. That's one bonus of aesthet-ics. You can consciously use this toyour advantage to draw the eye to thelogo instead of the hashmarks andother wear areas. Damage isn't quiteas noticeable.

We do tend to think of field presen-tation as primarily a "fan thing" or a"media thing," but don't discount theeffect it has on the team. They do no-tice that presentation, and they do ap-preciate it. •

- Sports Turf Topics 1998-1999, ACompendium of STMA Articles

Mike Andresen is athletic turf managerat Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.He is a board member for the IowaSports Turf Managers Association andis chapter relations chair of the nationalSTMA.

18 • SEPTEMBER 200 1

Cricket's Fields of DreamsEXTENSIVE WINTER DAMAGE FIXED FOR BIG TOURNEY

Imaginethe shock Ron Aldridge andthe other International Cricket Coun-cil Trophy organizers felt when the

snow melted last April and uncoveredpitches in horrible shape.

The Toronto winter was harsh. Dam-age to the grass was extensive and withonly three months before some 400 crick-eters from more than 20 countries were todescend on the Toronto area to play in thetournament - the world's biggest gather-ing of national teams - it would take amiracle to get the fields ready in time."It was a monumental task," said

Aldridge, chairman of the organizing com-mittee. "We had a winter where it frozeand thawed and it froze again. When weeventually got a view of the wickets, theywere in disastrous condition."

Many doubted the fields would beready in time. Countries scheduled tocompete in the tournament would sendspies to scout the grounds and they wouldreturn with negative reports.

Even the ICC, the world governingbody of cricket, was worried. "It would

be fair to say that there was a bit of con-cern earlier in the year because of theweather they had," said Clive Hitchcock,the ICC's manager of cricket operations.

So Aldridge and his crew called in ex-perts from England to rebuild the lawns.They sought out an extra venue to decreasewear and tear on the existing fields andthey got some help from Mother Naturein the form of warm, wet weather. The 10fields were green, groomed and ready forthe matches, which started June 22.

"Those people that came here to do re-connaissance in March and April are nowjust shaking their heads because they re-ally didn't believe it could come back theway it has," Aldridge said. "The wicketsare exquisite and the grounds look beau-tiful." • - excerpts from Tim Cook,

The Globe and Mail, June 23,2001

Editor's note: What a shame that the gov-erning bodies of cricket in Canada couldfind no one qualified and experiencedenough in turf management that theyhad to bring in people from England.

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point hitch and P.T.O. which allows theoperator to use both front and rearmounted implements. The 180 degree bi-directional seat provides a different fieldof vision when pushing or pulling turfimplements. Attachments include snowblowers, 10 and 12 ft. rotary mowers, flailmowers and snow blades, for tow behindor outfront applications. The 64-speedgear box with 32 forward and 32 reversegears provides infinite speed control andcan handle any application or task withease. The TTR Series Tractors come stand-ard with a comfortable, panoramic cab andair conditioning.

For more information, contact G.C.Duke Equipment Ltd., 1184 Plains Rd. E.,Burlington, ON L7S 1W6, phone 905-637-5216 (Burlington), 905-338-2404(Toronto area) or 1-800-883-0761. •