STMA Fundraiser Date Set for Aug 17th

The Gateway STMA is hosting the inaugural STMA Fundraiser Trivia Night Friday August 17^th, at the Maryland Heights Community Center.  Trivia night will consist of ten different themed rounds with each round being 10 questions.  General Knowledge questions for ages 21 and older. Mulligans will be available for purchase by each table.  Beer, wine, and assorted soda will be provided.  Please feel free to bring any food and/or beverages for your own table. There will be silent auction items, 50/50 raffle, giveaways and much more.  We have a limit of 50 tables which will go fast so register ASAP.  In order to reserve a table you need to have a minimum of 6 players at $25 a player.  If you wish to buy or sponsor a table the price will be $200/ table.  Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the Inaugural Gateway STMA Trivia Night will start promptly at 7pm.

Conratulations to the 2011 STMA Field of the Year Award Winner for College and Univeristy BaseballField

• University of Missouri: Simmons Field at Taylor Stadium; Columbia, MO; Josh McPherson, CSFM

NFL Players Prefer Natural Grass

A recent survey of NFL players conducted by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) during September through November 2010 revealed that 69.4% of the players prefer natural grass to 14.3% who prefer an artificial surface. 9% of the players surveyed indicated they had no preference. 

When asked which surface do they think is more likely to contribute to injury 82.4% selected artificial turf. When asked which type of field was more likely to cause soreness and fatigue 89.1% chose artificial turf. And when asked which surface was most likely to shorten their career, artificial turf received 89.7% of the votes.

In a hard-hitting and competitive sport such as professional football in which the average career is only 3.3 years, and often shortened due to injury, it’s easy to understand why the athletes would be concerned about their health and how a playing surface can take a serious toll on their bodies. A total of 1619 active NFL Players from all 32 teams voluntarily filled out the survey. Overall natural turfgrass fields were preferred over artificial fields almost 5 to 1. 

Another revealing aspect of the survey, 74.7% of the players indicated that NFL grounds keepers played a very significant role on the performance of natural turfgrass playing fields and only 23.7% believed groundskeepers played a very significant role when it came to the playing surface performance of artificial turf fields. 

As more and more colleges and high school sports fields consider artificial turf, one has to wonder, when it comes to the health concerns of athletes, is anyone listening? Does anybody really care?

Source:  Turf Producers International E-Newsletter, Vol. 4 Issue 2, February 2011

Gateway STMA is now on Facebook

Members can join the Gateway STMA group on Facebook and use the format for discussions, share info and upload photos or video.  This is a free web site to join and is a great networking tool and is easy to use.  The national STMA group can also be found on Facebook. 

 www.facebook.com