Mastering the Art of ECU Grass: Techniques and Tips from the Field

We are here with feature of ECU grass. That’s how I found you. EC exact actual ECU grass guys, grass, all lower caps. So you can find them. But we’re gonna repair this mount and learn how to do it properly. First things first, we got our guys, they’re raking chunks out of way. We’re gonna scoop those up.

So yeah, so it looks like the lefties were dominating today, get a lot of damage in the second game. We saw quite a few of them. So they’re gonna leave a nice hole. We always tend to have a little more damage on the left side, even if we have more rail, which is kind of strange. The guy I work with back in Kenson, also the Miley team, he has this theory about it. And if you smear it when it’s wet, you won’t have as much as damage. But whatever reason, we find it in the same spot almost every year. Okay, so yeah, once we’re done there, we’re gonna head right here to the same thing at the tabletop. Is that the anatomy? Is that correct? Exactly. We’re gonna hit the table. And if there’s anything right here, I have a little technique. Take it and I just kind of flick it. Yeah, just to get every little bit out that we can. Gotcha. That’s good.

Once that’s done, and grab the watering can and it with the light water. Oh, the heavy water. We have these new watering cans and they’re a little bit of a mess to handle sometimes. But honestly, I’ve heard that wet is like the perfect amount for this. It’s not too bad. And if you tend to over water, you have a kitchen broom so you can kind of spread this out a little bit just to clean it up. Because if you put the clay down and it’s too wet, you’re gonna get MUD and MUD’s gonna tamp way too easy and it’s just gonna become a big mess. You don’t want that. Nope. So if you just spread it out a little bit, once we’re done.

Oh, man, Bill here is gonna load us up with Clay. He’s actually my boss. He’s the man. He gets a lot of the day to day stuff done. Yeah, he looks like the guy who like you need something done, you go to Bill Builds, a season veteran of the trade. He is outstanding the work with and he’s got a really good technique for about everything he does. So when you just declumps, I don’t know if that’s the correct term, declumped the clay was impressive. I was like, wow, that’s pretty clumpy. Very clearly just he does pour the clay out. It’s gonna be a good bit higher and everything around it. But obviously once you tamp everything and get it good and compact, you’re looking at a good level server. Yeah, that’s when the power gets in. And I notice he starts with small temp. Yep. So the small temp is not more for the rubber. So you don’t hit the rubber. You hit the rubber too much, you’re gonna have an uneven surface on the rubber, which is way less than ideal. Then you have to dig the whole thing out. When you do template like that, you wanna go first with a light temp. Okay, just because if you go in full force, you’re gonna have stuff flying everywhere. It’s gonna make an absolute mess. You good, you get a good temp, compact it down, and then you can really get after it like they’re getting after it here. He’s getting that you want it wrong. Bill does get stuff done. I would not want to owe Bill money, that’s for sure. Next, you’re gonna get a fan Rake. And again, this is like his bread and butter. He is, if you wanna mound clean and all the chunks gone, Bill is your man. I’ve never seen anybody do it better than him. So what he’s doing right now is he’s raking. And as he’s raking, he’s kind of throwing it to the side and see how he’s kind of turning the rate. So what he’s doing there is he’s throwing the chunks while also spreading the surface. But when you throw it like that and bring it up at the end, the chunks are flying and the surface is just spreading a little bit. So he’s gonna make these piles. It takes a lot of training. It took me probably two years to figure that one out. And he kept teaching me and working with me. And it just, it really, it’s an art and it’s hard. But so once he gets these chunks spread, he’s gonna get a scoop, somebody’s gonna come in here and scoop this up, and then we’re gonna add a little more surface and we’ll be ready for another day. We don’t really do it now cuz we’re still carpet. But before games, I get to come up here and I get to make it look gorgeous. What would you say is the best you’ve done? I’ll be honest, I think this weekend there’s a couple series where I’ve put down some good circles. I work really hard against Cincy State cuz obviously it’s like huge mid week and it looked fantastic. We’ve had a few games where it’s been right there, but I think just the fresh turf is out here. Every game is just, it’s made it look phenomenal.

Obviously, with us hosting a regional this year, you want to go above and beyond and do everything you can to make this just the best visual experience for all the fans involved. Feature. This has been an absolute pleasure, absolute. Thank you for so much.