When they were young, Sarah Martin and Heather Nabozny both loved being outside, and they never outgrew their love for sunshine, grass and dirt. When doors opened for both into the world of sport turf management, Martin and Nabozny realized their good fortune in finding the ideal career path.
Martin is the turf manager for a sprawling city-owned sports complex in Phoenix and the president of the Sports Turf Management Association. Nabozny is the head groundskeeper for the Detroit Tigers. Both have ascended in a field dominated by men without giving too much thought to their roles as pioneers. They have earned respect nationwide in turf management through hard work and steadfast commitment to the fields under their care.
[/inlinead]
“I’m somebody who truly believes that if it’s something you want to do and something you’re passionate about, it doesn’t matter male or female, you’re going to go far,” says Martin, who has also worked in minor league baseball and the Milwaukee Brewers spring training site in Phoenix.
Today, in her role overseeing the grounds for the Reach 11 Sports Complex, Martin manages a staff of six tasked with maintaining 18 soccer fields, four baseball fields and more than 20 miles of natural trails.
In January, she was named president of the STMA, a role that allows her to help promote turf management nationwide and give back to the network of people that has encouraged her along the way. She originally joined STMA when she was 19, pursuing a degree in landscape horticulture and turfgrass management at Colorado State.
“I’ve been in the STMA longer than I haven’t at this point in my life,” she said. “It’s really an honor, and it’s kind of surreal to have gone through the organization like that. It’s done a lot for me as far as confidence and knowledge and being able to speak in front of large groups of people.”
[/inlinead]
With 20 years under her belt in Detroit and one of only two women working as a head groundskeeper in Major League Baseball, Nabozny is a Michigan native who grew up cheering for the Tigers and working for her father’s lawn care company.
After completing the turf management program at Michigan State, she knew she wanted to work in sports, but she wasn’t that interested in golf courses. Her first job after leaving MSU was with the Toronto Blue Jays’ spring training facility, and that experience drew her to the task of maintaining baseball fields.
“With baseball you've got turf and you've got clay, and most of the game is actually played on the clay, so it was a nice dynamic to take care of both,” she said. “It doesn't sound like you need to take care of dirt but it's really, really important in baseball."
Because Tigers Stadium is a multiuse facility, Nabozny is also responsible for the staff scheduling and facilities management of events like concerts, corporate batting practices and fantasy camps and even soccer and hockey games.
She spends more time on her computer than she would like at times; she has to hire and oversee a grounds crew of 50 people each year in the offseason, among other tasks. But she is still at her most content when she is outside making sure the diamond, the warning track, the mounds and every inch of grass is pristine.
If a young person were to ask her what it takes to succeed in turf management, she said, she would tell them it is a job for those who are unafraid of hard work and like to achieve visible results from the time they invest.
"It’s good for someone that doesn't mind working a lot of hours—someone that likes to be outside whether it's good weather or bad weather,” she said. “A hardworking person, a person who's not afraid to get their hands dirty. And school is so important as well, to get the fundamentals of turf management and the basics give you the foundation to build upon."
Sarah Martin
[inlinead align="left"][/inlinead]
“I’m somebody who truly believes that if it’s something you want to do and something you’re passionate about, it doesn’t matter male or female, you’re going to go far,” says Martin, who has also worked in minor league baseball and the Milwaukee Brewers spring training site in Phoenix.
Today, in her role overseeing the grounds for the Reach 11 Sports Complex, Martin manages a staff of six tasked with maintaining 18 soccer fields, four baseball fields and more than 20 miles of natural trails.
In January, she was named president of the STMA, a role that allows her to help promote turf management nationwide and give back to the network of people that has encouraged her along the way. She originally joined STMA when she was 19, pursuing a degree in landscape horticulture and turfgrass management at Colorado State.
“I’ve been in the STMA longer than I haven’t at this point in my life,” she said. “It’s really an honor, and it’s kind of surreal to have gone through the organization like that. It’s done a lot for me as far as confidence and knowledge and being able to speak in front of large groups of people.”
Heather Nabozny
[inlinead align="left"][/inlinead]
With 20 years under her belt in Detroit and one of only two women working as a head groundskeeper in Major League Baseball, Nabozny is a Michigan native who grew up cheering for the Tigers and working for her father’s lawn care company.
After completing the turf management program at Michigan State, she knew she wanted to work in sports, but she wasn’t that interested in golf courses. Her first job after leaving MSU was with the Toronto Blue Jays’ spring training facility, and that experience drew her to the task of maintaining baseball fields.
“With baseball you've got turf and you've got clay, and most of the game is actually played on the clay, so it was a nice dynamic to take care of both,” she said. “It doesn't sound like you need to take care of dirt but it's really, really important in baseball."
Because Tigers Stadium is a multiuse facility, Nabozny is also responsible for the staff scheduling and facilities management of events like concerts, corporate batting practices and fantasy camps and even soccer and hockey games.
She spends more time on her computer than she would like at times; she has to hire and oversee a grounds crew of 50 people each year in the offseason, among other tasks. But she is still at her most content when she is outside making sure the diamond, the warning track, the mounds and every inch of grass is pristine.
If a young person were to ask her what it takes to succeed in turf management, she said, she would tell them it is a job for those who are unafraid of hard work and like to achieve visible results from the time they invest.
"It’s good for someone that doesn't mind working a lot of hours—someone that likes to be outside whether it's good weather or bad weather,” she said. “A hardworking person, a person who's not afraid to get their hands dirty. And school is so important as well, to get the fundamentals of turf management and the basics give you the foundation to build upon."
