Aug. 21, 2007
By Brett Miller
Few people would recognize Herb Combs on game days during the Penn State athletic season, but they are certainly familiar with the end product that he and his staff work every day on.
"Most of the athletes here might not know who we are personally but they all respect the quality of field that we provide them to compete on," said Combs.
Combs is in his second year at Penn State as the Assistant Athletic Field Supervisor. Before taking the Penn State position, he was formerly the Assistant Grounds Keeper at the University of Minnesota. Combs assists Bob Hudzik, the Athletic Field Supervisor, in the day-to-day operations of all the outdoor facilities, including managing a crew of seven full-time tech-service employees and 15-25 student employees. He and his staff are responsible for all 11 Intercollegiate Athletic outdoor facilities, club sports fields, intramural fields, and general recreation areas.
Combs said that the field maintenance staff has spent much of the summer preparing for the upcoming athletic season. "During the summer months we put a lot of effort into preparing our varsity competition fields for the upcoming fall seasons," said Combs. "We have an agronomical program that we practice from year to year that we follow while hoping mother nature provides us with weather conditions we need to carry out many tasks at various times." Some of the tasks that need to be done include mowing, watering, fertilizing, and performing minor projects to keep facilities in the best possible shape for fans and players.
Herb has been a great addition to the facilities staff and we are very fortunate that he oversaw the softball facility at Minnesota therefore he has a special place in his heart for our program. We're ecstatic that he's been added to the staff.Robin Petrini, Penn State Head Softball Coach |
One of the projects this summer that Combs monitored was the continuation of a project that began with the removal of the existing sod at Nittany Lion Field, home of Penn State's softball team. "Last fall we decided to remove the existing sod at the softball field and re-graded the existing surface. We resoded with Kentucky bluegrass sod which was done to provide a leveler and safer playing surface for the team," said Combs. He remarked that his staff has been working hard this summer to eliminate wear areas and compaction in the surface as well as minimize the "up hill" feeling in the playing field. Combs seemed excited about the new surface saying, "the renovations have allowed us to apply more attention to the smaller details that separates our facilities from others at the Division I level."
During the season, Combs said the staff stays busy maintaining all of the outdoor athletic fields. "During the fall, all 11 varsity teams that we take care of are participating in some capacity, whether it is in season or out of season, not to mention the intramural programs and clubs sports," Combs said. "We strive to provide the best conditions for all our teams at all times of the year."
Jeffrey Field |
Sometimes, scheduling makes it difficult to provide excellent field conditions at all times. "There are times where we will have a football game, men's and women's soccer games, a field hockey game on a given weekend, and then turn around and have to clean all the facilities and get them ready for practice, the next game, or the next team to use them," Combs said, "but we always seem to make it work."
Combs said that the weather is the biggest determining factor in day-to-day activities and that many decisions are made based on daily conditions such as temperature and wind. For Combs, the biggest enemy of his staff is rain. "Tarping a field is vary labor intensive and requires a lot of bodies," said Combs. "Rain also causes many other adverse affects to the day-to-day operations let alone a football game or any other event."
The hard work that the field maintenance staff puts into the athletic fields was recognized last year when Jeffrey Field was named the SportsTurf Managers Association's Collegiate Soccer Field of the Year. Combs described the honor as an "outstanding accomplishment for me and my staff." "The big thing about the award is that it is a way for our crew to get the recognition for all the hard work they do, because without them we wouldn't be able to provide the playing conditions that we do for all of our athletes here at Penn State," said Combs.
In a job where few fans recognize him for his work, Combs takes pride in seeing the final product. "The most rewarding part of this job is to watch the athletes compete on game day at whatever particular facility they participate on," said Combs. "At the end of the long day it's pretty special to turn on ESPN and see the highlights with our work of art and say `wow, that looks awesome!'"