Sports stadium manager shares experience at Bayer’s Women in Golf

A challenge of being a woman in the sports turf industry, according to Sun Roesslein, CSFM, a sports stadium manager with Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado, is the general misconception that many coaches who play at their field for the first time often ask, “I’d like to talk to the guy in charge.”

To which she replies, “Yeah, you’re talking to her.”

She says it’s also unusual to have two females in charge of an athletic complex, a job she and colleague Christi Clay, CSFM, manage together.

Roesslein recently attended Bayer’s 2020 Women in Golf event, designed to connect women throughout the turfgrass industry. She and Clay manage North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada, Colo., a 14-acre football and soccer complex.

She discovered Bayer’s Women in Golf event through social media. Kelly Lynch, regional manager for Pure Seed, whom Roesslein had met through the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA), encouraged her to apply even though she doesn’t work in golf.

Lynch told her, “We need all the women in the turf industry that we can get.”

Roesslein fell in love with turf after working at a minor league baseball field in Lexington, Ky., one summer as she was working on a master’s degree in sports administration. She completed her degree but decided to change careers.

“I pretty much always knew I wanted to work outside in some capacity,” she says. “I was convinced I was going to be a collegiate softball coach; that’s why I was getting my master’s in sports administration. What made me fall in love with turf management? Being outside and seeing tangible results from my work but also every day is something different and there are always new challenges to problem solve.”

She’s been at the North Area Athletic Complex for 15 years and completed STMA’s Certified Sports Field Manager (CSFM) Certification Program in 2016. The process includes hands-on work and a test and covers topics including pest management, agronomics, administration and sport-specific field layouts. Roesslein says it’s an intense but vital step in sports turf management. There’s also a continuing education component that’s critical too.

“It’s really a commitment to staying up with changes in the industry and best practices as well as being involved in what you’re passionate about,” she says about maintaining the certification.

Roesslein says there are many challenges to her job, including co-managing the day-to-day field operations of the complex with Clay. They’re both responsible for staffing ticket booths, managing other staff members at events and helping out officials and athletic trainers for any game or outside event as needed.

The complex is also the home field for six local high school football teams and, in a typical year, would host at least 30 to 35 home games in a 10-week season and playoffs. This year is a shortened six-week season, but Roesslein says she’s happy the complex gets to mark its 20th anniversary with games.

“It’s not exactly how we wanted to celebrate,” she says. “We’re certainly glad to have the chance to show off what we’ve managed to accomplish in 20 years and give the kids a chance to play.”

STMA recognized the North Area Athletic Complex football field as the 2015 National High School Football Field of the Year, but Roesslein says safety is the most important part of the job.

“I’m at the high school level now, and to us, it’s super important to have a very safe, playable field so these kids can move on and take the next step in their career, move on to playing college,” she says. “We have and a couple who have played on our field that have made it to the NFL level, which is pretty exciting to see.”

Roesslein says she’s noticed more young women at conferences, and she says the experience at Women in Golf was a great way to connect with other women in turfgrass.

“(Bayer) did a fantastic job this year with the challenges that they were faced with and turning it into a very worthwhile event,” she says.

The small, breakout sessions to discuss in greater detail the presentations helped make the experience more personal.

“Bayer did a great job of still giving us an opportunity to feel like we’re connecting and networking,” she says.

A highlight was the scheduled hourlong happy hour that, for many attendees, that continued for three hours or more.

“I would not have had the ability to connect with so many people within the golf course industry and vendors; that was pretty cool,” she says. “Clearly, they’re doing something right if something they had slated to be an hour turns into three hours.”

Roesslein says to young women in the turfgrass industry or thinking about a career: you belong in this industry.

“Keep focused on your passion and believe that you know your stuff,” she says.“You have people cheering you on that you may not realize, and there is so much support behind you. There are so many wonderful people in this industry. I believe you can reach out to just about anyone at any time and make a really good connection.”