Penn State turfgrass science doctoral student interns with MetLife Stadium crew

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ava Veith doesn’t understand why more athletes, when they finish playing collegiate sports on turfgrass, don’t pursue careers related to taking care of the playing surface that supported their exploits. To her, it’s a natural progression.

The Williamsburg, Virginia, native earned her master’s degree in plant pathology at Virginia Tech before coming to Penn State to pursue a doctoral degree in agricultural and environmental plant science, advised by Chase Straw, assistant professor of turfgrass soils and director of the Center for Sports Surface Research in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Veith played varsity soccer at Virginia Tech.

This summer, Veith worked with the grounds crew at MetLife Stadium near New York City in East Rutherford, New Jersey, employing cutting-edge scientific techniques and devices to assess and maintain the playing surface there. She provided information both to her supervisor — Tyler Morris, head groundskeeper at MetLife Stadium — and FIFA, which stands for the Federation Internationale de Football Association.

The work was important because the venue — temporarily rebranded as “New York New Jersey Stadium” for the World Cup — was the site of eight tournament matches, including the championship match between Spain and Argentina.

“My responsibility at the New York New Jersey Stadium was to do all of the data collection on the pitch, or field, so I was out there every day measuring hardness, ball bounce, ball roll and moisture, all these different kinds of metrics,” she said. “Then I analyzed everything, organized it into a presentable report, and I showed the analysis to the head groundskeeper and helped him make data-driven management decisions based on how the field was performing and how it was reacting to what we were doing.”

As a former Division I soccer player and a budding turfgrass professional, getting to work on a celebrated field like MetLife in conjunction with the World Cup — the largest and most-viewed single sporting event on the planet — was a dream come true for Veith. She said she greatly enjoyed applying what she has learned as a graduate student in a high-profile, real-world setting.

“Honestly, it was pretty surreal every day, thinking about what we were doing and that famous athletes were playing on this field,” she said. “It's hard to believe, and it's something I've always dreamed about — being at the World Cup. It was crazy to think that I’d worked on that field every day, knowing that literally billions of people were watching the matches there ... I was just trying to soak it all in.”

Turfgrass science has provided a bridge of sorts between playing a sport at a high level and taking on a career, Veith explained. This experience at a World Cup venue is just icing on the cake, she pointed out.

“I played soccer my whole life, and for the longest time, the sport was my whole world,” Veith said. “In the back of my head, I wondered what I was going to do after I graduated from Virginia Tech and wasn’t playing soccer anymore. I just feel like what I do now in turfgrass science has been the perfect transition from that.”

Two Penn State turfgrass students interned in Miami

Two other Penn State graduate students participated in World Cup-related turfgrass science internships. Jayron Klinghagen, of Orland, Wyoming, and Zineb Alouani, of Settat, Morocco, both master’s degree students in agricultural and environmental plant science, worked with the grounds crew at a FIFA referees base camp at Miami Dade College.

More than 170 referees for the World Cup trained on four fields, or pitches, there for two weeks before the tournament started, and Klinghagen and Alouani helped the FIFA crew with mowing, line painting, fertilizing, watering and grooming the surfaces. The goal was to match the agronomics of the stadium fields where World Cup matches would be played and the referees would officiate.

These World Cup internships are a sign of things to come, according to Straw, who intends to continue arranging internships and experiences for Penn State turfgrass science students at high-profile athletic venues. His program is focused on data-driven management for sports fields and golf courses, and the various technologies related to surface testing and athlete-surface interactions

“Penn State has a very storied turfgrass program, and it’s one of the best — if not the best — in the world,” he said. “Once I visited here and saw all the resources and the alumni network, I just couldn't turn it down. ... I'm really biased, but when I recruit high school kids into our program, I tell them that nothing’s as much fun as turfgrass science. If you want to go into agriculture, give it a try, because we get to work in these cool venues.”