Hawks Field Named 2003 Baseball Field of the Year

Council Bluffs, Iowa ? Hawks Field at Haymarket Park earned a national honor this week, as it earned the 2003 Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) Baseball Field of the Year Award in the College/University division. The award presentation will take place during the STMA Awards Banquet to be held on Jan. 23, 2004, in San Diego, Calif., in conjunction with the Association’s annual conference.

The commitment to excellence in overall field quality, safety, playability and appearance earned Hawks Field at Haymarket Park Field of the Year honors in voting by a panel of national judges.

In 2003, over 200 events took place at the facility, which the University of Nebraska shares with the Northern League’s Lincoln Saltdogs and the city of Lincoln. The field has gotten rave reviews since it opened in the summer of 2001, as it has been selected as the Northern League’s top playing surface in each of the first three seasons in voting among the league’s players and coaches.

For Athletic Turf Manager Groundskeeper Dan Bergstrom, this is the second time he has been associated with the STMA Diamond of the Year, as he was the head groundskeeper at the University of Kentucky’s Cliff Hagan baseball stadium when the field was chosen in 1999. At Hawks Field, Bergstrom is in charge of a three-person full-time staff that includes assistants Jennifer Roeber and Geoff Humphrey.

Nebraska Head Baseball Coach Mike Anderson appreciates the efforts that Bergstrom and his staff go to in giving both the Huskers and Saltdogs the best playing conditions possible.

"Once you get to know Dan, you realize immediately that he expects no less than perfection, and you see that in the work he does every day," Anderson said. "As coaches, we are grateful for the work that Dan and his staff do every day to make Hawks Field such a special place for our players for both practices and games."

"Our players prefer to play at home because of the way our surface performs," Bergstrom said. "Playability is much more important than aesthetics, so we make a conscientious effort to keep the surface true in all weather conditions. But we also believe in providing great aesthetics for a fan-friendly atmosphere, and our crew takes pride in the ?wow’ factor of our ballpark."

The Field of the Year Awards are presented for top maintenance of natural playing surfaces and support facilities in four major sports areas: baseball, softball, football and soccer. The Field of the Year and Sports Field Complex of the Year Awards are the highest honor STMA bestows upon a facility. Entrants must supply information on the design of the facility, the uses of the facility that impact the playing surface, the organization of the maintenance program and innovative solutions used to overcome playing surface problems.

Each of the five judges on the Awards Committee review the entrants independently, grading them on each aspect of the criteria. The results of the independent input of the five judges determine the winning field.