Prepping the football field is no small feat. Just ask the stadium ground supervisor, Jon Quist, who makes sure that the LaVell Edwards Stadium field is looking near perfect for game day.
“A lot of time, people have to look twice before they realize it is real grass, because we maintain it and keep it at a really nice high level.”
In a typical week leading up to a BYU home football game, Quist will have a crew of three people preparing the field full time.
“As far as prep time goes, we will work on it the whole week,” Quist said.
Quist’s crew mows the lawn three times a week leading up to the forty man hour and two and a half day process of painting the field.
“Often times on Wednesday, I’ll paint the whole border and have the whole border done on Wednesday; and then Thursday we will do hashes, lines, and numbers; and then Friday we will do the logos.”
Ninety gallons of ready to use paint specialized for natural turf is used so it won’t damage the grass as much as a regular paint would. So what about the weeks where the weather isn’t as hoped for? Quist said his crew tries really hard to be prepared for whatever weather comes their way.
“We don’t have control over the weather, but so we just do our best. We plan and we prepare and we start as early as possible, and if we see snow coming, we will get to work and cover the field,” Quist said.
When the field doesn’t have to be game ready in the off season, it is aerated about five times a years. Also, 100 tons of sand are added to the surface every off season to smooth the turf in preparation for the upcoming season.
