The Keene State College grounds crew has a tough job.
The eleven-man staff is responsible for all of the school’s athletic fields, from the softball diamonds to the practice soccer fields. It’s the type of work that is easily overlooked and often under-appreciated. And yet, it is an absolutely vital part of KSC athletics.
At the center of it all is Mike Wade, the head of the KSC grounds crew.
“This is what I’ve always liked doing,” Wade said. “I’ve been working on golf courses since I was in high school as a summer job.”
Wade was hired in 2008 by Bud Winsor, the assistant director of grounds.
Zach Winn / Sports Editor: Head of Keene State Grounds, Mike Wade uses all of the machines like the ones above in the Whitcomb Building throughout the year to maintain the school’s playing fields.
“I couldn’t have been happier to get a quality resume like Mike’s,” Winsor recalled. “I read through like twenty resumes before I got to Mike’s, and finally I got there and knew right away he was the guy.”
Wade, who graduated University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in Plant and Soil Science had previously been running the grounds crew of a golf course. He doesn’t seem to have had any difficulty with the transition.
“I would say the biggest difference [between athletic fields and golf courses] is that the wear patterns on the fields are a lot bigger than in golf,” Wade said.
“In golf they’re not running, whereas sports fields have more high-impact damage.”
That high-impact damage is one of the many challenges of the job, and both Wade and Winsor noted that the hectic scheduling often leads to the overuse of the fields. But perhaps the biggest challenges of the job come from the unplanned variables that inevitably come up every season.
Wade remembered a freak snowstorm that came on Halloween as he was getting the field ready for a playoff soccer game.
Winsor recalled flooding in 2005 that left the entire soccer field underwater.
“Owl Stadium is in a flood plain so that’s always a problem,” Winsor said. “And there’s nowhere to drain it to, so that’s definitely a challenge for Mike.”
The flood plain Winsor referred to is made worse by the location of the fields.
The Ashuelot River runs next to the soccer fields. When Keene gets heavy rain the river often floods, making Wade and his crew’s job much more difficult.
Wade said he can’t count the amount of times he has had to drain the field in preparation for a game. But the crew members laugh about these problems now, and continued to joke around throughout their interviews.
It’s clear they genuinely like their jobs.
“It’s a great community, the staff, faculty and students,” utility worker Dee Denehy said.
“And I like that it’s something different every day, we wind up getting to do a little bit of everything.” It seems easy to laugh about problems when the fields are in better conditions than ever before. Winsor said there have been noticeable improvements since he hired Wade.
“Before Mike, we had two older gentlemen who both retired,” Winsor said. “And they always kept the field nice, but they didn’t bring the knowledge of the field that Mike does. It’s really incomparable.”
Softball coach Charlie Beach agreed. “I’ve been ecstatic with the field conditions,” Beach said.
“They keep it seeded beautifully and watered perfectly.”
Beach had his own grounds crew stories. There was the time they replaced the entire infield dirt one day before practice—the team didn’t even notice. Beach also is in awe of Wade’s creativity.
He told the story of a game that had been delayed because of rain. It was time to pull the tarp off the field and start the game, but the amount of rain on the tarp made it too heavy to move. Beach thought the game would be delayed for another hour of pushing water off of the tarp; then he saw a bubble of air forming under the tarp.
“[Wade] put a leaf blower under the tarp so the air bubble would push the water off,” Beach remembered. “It was unbelievably smart, I’d never seen anything like it.”
Beach doesn’t think any other fields in the Little Eastern Conference compare with KSC’s. “You can ask any team in the LEC and they’ll tell you, we have the best field in the conference, and maybe even in the region,” Beach said.
“The only field I can remember that has came close is Babson, and I haven’t been there in a few years.”
Wade is appreciative of the praise he has received from coaches, but holds a much more modest job description for himself and his grounds crew.
“Our job is just to try keep the playing field safe for the athletes, first and foremost,” Wade said.
According to KSC coaches, he has gone above and beyond his duties.
Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com