Education, best practice ideas and camaraderie took center stage when more than 250 members of the sports field industry came together for the 2023 Southeast Regional Sports Turf Conference & Trade Show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Ewing is a longtime supporter of the conference, organized by the Sports Field Management Association’s North and South Carolina chapters. It ran from Sunday, Nov. 12 to Wednesday, Nov. 15, drawing attendees from multiple states and regions across the country.
Monday kicked off with the Carolinas’ Cup Golf Scholarship fundraiser, which expanded to two courses this year.
We ended the day with a dinner for about 60 customers hosted by Ewing and vendor/industry partners World Class Paints, DuraEdge, Pro’s Choice Supply, Line to Line, Precision Turf, The Motz Group and Sod Solutions. We can’t thank those partners enough for hosting this gathering with us for the last five years.
Tuesday was packed with conference nuts and bolts, including SFMA national President Sun Roesslein’s association update and the leadership and management keynote speech by Steve Keating of Toro.
The day also included educational sessions and the annual trade show. It was great to connect with longtime customers and meet new faces in our region during the trade show. We also were excited to see many attendees carrying Ewing’s signature green buckets as we broke for lunch.
After lunch, we were treated to a first-class field painting session led by Danny Losito, CSFM, of the Carolina Panthers and Casey Carrick, CSFM, of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
They discussed and demonstrated how different paints—from aerosols to ready-to-use field marking paints—are used depending on the playing surface. For example, what works on natural grass may not be best for synthetic surfaces. We also learned how paint nozzle tips affect paint, and which ones are best for specific jobs.
There’s a lot more to painting quality logos on sports fields than I realized.
From there, participants took their pick of several breakout sessions on topics including Infield Soil Testing with Evan Mascitti, Ph.D., of Pennsylvania State University; Storm Prep and Re-Entry with Dr. Dara Park of Clemson University; and Growing the Industry…Breaking the Grass Ceiling with myself and Sun Rosselein, CSFM.
Sun and I discussed our involvement with the Little League Softball World Series, her Women in Turf team, and volunteering for events outside of your comfort zone. We covered how volunteers turn the baseball field into a softball field for the series each year, how we plan and implement a maintenance strategy for an eight-day tournament, how we schedule volunteers from across the country who have never worked with each other before, travel, logistics, and daily maintenance and management of two different facilities for games that are broadcast both nationally and internationally.
More breakouts featured Weston Floyd, CSFM, of Texas A&M University discussing the use of GPS sprayers on sports fields, Dr. Fred Yelverton of North Carolina State University discussing goose, Poa, and crabgrass management strategies and pesticide applications, and Devon Carroll, Ph.D., of Envu talking about how to address labor needs through increased diversity and engagement.
Once the breakouts were completed, the North Carolina and South Carolina SFMA Chapters held their annual business meeting and installation of officers.
We ended Tuesday with a Ewing-sponsored social event at Damon’s Grill. We have sponsored this event for many years, inviting conference attendees to network and socialize with industry peers and partners. We host dinner and a social hour that is extremely well attended and an event all look forward to each year.
Wednesday was the final day of the conference, with more breakout sessions. Dr. Gerald Henry of the University of Georgia provided a great session on warm season weed control.
Amy Fouty, CSFM, of The Motz Group talked about successes and failures in staffing, a session that I was pleased to moderate. Amy shared what she’s learned during her time in the industry on how to treat, retain and maintain employees; how to turn beginners into winners and how to keep your staff focused on the end goal.
Other sessions included Burke Anders of the University of South Carolina discussing equipment maintenance and management; Brad Fowler of Clemson University’s Cooperative Extension Service discussing dealing with insects and pesticides; and Dr. Burt McCarty of Clemson University giving a pesticide update that included Poa annua management and strategies for pest management going forward into 2024.
This was a very successful conference for attendees and for Ewing. We are thankful we get to see so many customers, friends and industry partners year in and year out, and we’re already looking forward to 2024’s conference, scheduled for Nov. 18 to 20 in Myrtle Beach.
If you’re interested in learning more about the conference, and how you can get involved with volunteer projects like the Little League Softball World Series that Sun Rosselein and I spoke about, please feel free to reach out to me cball@ewingos.com.