Olivia Childress

FIELD TIME: The fields in Murray Stadium are used year-round my multiple different sports. Maintenance worker Fred Napier said most people do not expect the time needed to maintain the field.

As fans of both the  lacrosse and soccer teams line up in the bleachers, the glowing lights of the Murray Stadium reflect on the painted white lines that run across the field. For an average student, this might not mean much, but for maintenance worker Fred Napier these white lines are a part of a tedious daily regimen to keep the fields at Murray up to standard.

Murray Fields host lacrosse, Unified Track, and soccer activities every day. However, the maintenance of the Murray Stadium has been a task that has required much effort from the maintenance staff.

“Many people think that it only requires maintenance during the fall and spring, but the truth is we do a lot during the winter and offseason times play a large role in making sure the field is in good condition,” Napier said.

Napier said that the areas the maintenance staff worked on Murray Stadium, the football stadium, and the softball fields. He also said that they are preparing the track and field for the upcoming track season.

“Murray is one of the many areas that we monitor throughout the different seasons, there are many other fields and complexes that we have to monitor and keep in good condition, every different field or complex requires different attention and planning,” Napier said.

Napier says that the many tasks of maintenance include checking the indoor heating of the air conditioning, maintaining the lights of the stadium and making sure the scoreboards and other aspects of the stadium can be readily used.

Besides Napier, maintenance foreman Mike Wyatt also plays a crucial role in the maintenance by planning the activities and coordinating all the activities for machinery purposes.

“Usually we have to contact different companies and make sure we have the necessary equipment to either keep the fields in good shape or fix any issues,” Wyatt said.

Maintenance efforts do not go unnoticed by the athletes, as many players also acknowledge the benefits that the Maintenance staff offers them.

“Murray is definitely one of the nicer fields we play on. It’s in really good condition as far as the quality of the turf and we really recognize that when we play at other fields and they aren’t necessarily as good as Murray,” Maddie Dumke, varsity lacrosse player and senior, said.

There are teams other than the lacrosse team that use the stadium’s facilities almost every day such as the Unified track team.

Ross Abdellah, Unified track member and senior said, “We have more than a hundred people running across the field and using the turf but it always seems to be in good shape every practice.”