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MTC Turf News – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com

The Turf Zone: Welcome to The Turf Zone. In this episode of Maryland Turfgrass, we’re talking to Shaun Meredith, Park and Safety Division Chief for Calvert County. Shaun, thanks for joining me. So we’re talking today because we’re doing a member spotlight for our magazine. First tell me a little about your current position and what you do for Calvert County.

SM: In the current position I have a really big scope of work. A lot of it has to do with athletic fields. We have over 60 total, some of them are local elementary and middle school fields we help maintain for the school district. We also have stuff ranging from highly maintained turf that has irrigation and bermudagrass or hybrid of bluemuda, as it’s come to be known, which if you don’t know, is a combination of bluegrass and bermudagrass in the same stand of turf, and we also have – the majority is not even irrigated. At that point, it’s keep it as green as you can.  Per my title, for our department, I also see a lot of – any safety issues and things throughout, not just in our parks, and I also manage all of our capital improvement projects for the Park and Recreation Department, which is about $32 million with of projects. So, it definitely keeps me very busy, we have a pretty big staff as well, we have over 600 acres of land that doesn’t just have athletic fields. It’s everything from trails to tennis courts, basketball courts, skate parks, dog parks, you name it, so customer service gets involved in a lot of that too, with being a public facility. 

TTZ: How many people are in your department working on all of that space? 

SM: Well, it really varies. Actual numbers and what we hope to get are always two different things, especially these days when it’s hard to get help. But if we’re full staff, we’re up around 60 people. 

TTZ: That’s a good size crew. How did you get to that position? What was your career path prior to this position? 

SM: I don’t know how far back everybody really wants to hear about me, but I started off, my family had a landscape business, so I grew up in that field of work. When I was a kid, I remember being out there mowing grass with my grandfather and the natural progression of things led me into the turfgrass industry. I went to Penn State and got a turfgrass degree. I went in there with all intentions of working on golf courses. So freshman year of college, I got in a bad four-wheeler accident, broke my neck in four places and paralyzed my right arm. That had me thinking about whether it was the right career path anymore. Obviously it’s not a job where you get to sit behind a desk all the time. But I stuck with it, I had a lot of good support. People encouraged me to stay in this field of work and I’m glad for that. I wouldn’t be where I’m at without it. I started off and actually ended up going into baseball. I worked in minor league baseball for eight years, going from State College, going up to New Hampshire. Minor league baseball, as people probably know is a lifestyle, I like to say, more than it is a job. You’ve gotta really be fully invested and want to spend the majority of your time there during the season, a lot of people do it. But my wife and I thought it was a good idea to try and look at a career change and something that’s a little less hour-dependent, hour demand, which led me into parks and recreation, where I’m at now. I honestly enjoy it a lot and I miss being on the grass all the time, but it keeps it fresh. There’s so many things going on, days go fast and really widen up the umbrella of knowledge, really. 

TTZ: I love the parks and rec element just from the standpoint of, you have a larger group of people that you’re kind of enhancing the experience, where you’ve got the dog parks, the hiking trails, not just the athletes out on the field or their fans and families. We’re big fans of hiking trails and I definitely appreciate the fact that somebody’s out there doing that work. 

SM: Thanks – it’s good to hear a thank you once in a while.

TTZ: You are noticed and appreciated! Especially because you have such a diverse range of tasks in your current position, what’s the best part? Is it still the grass, or is there something else that’s… 

SM: Oh yeah, that’s my love, there. The days that I get to work on infields or work on my grass or doing something, I think probably anymore, my staff probably doesn’t want me out there with them. That’s certainly what really puts blood into my veins. But honestly I’ve found that I had a lot more of a love of construction than I thought before. I’m sure it’s a combination of new things, I’m learning a lot as I go through and do it. I didn’t have formal education in it or anything like that, so it’s always nice to learn something new and I really enjoy the planning aspect of it, and over the years work on different facilities and fields and you try and find someone who knows how it was built, or what happened here or what’s in the ground there… the nice thing is that now that I’m planning it, building it, and then maintaining it, I kind of have all that insider knowledge and it really is nice, honestly.

TTZ: For sure. What’s the biggest challenge that you have, now that we know your favorite part, what’s the biggest challenge of your job?

SM: It sounds cliché to say it, but honestly, it’s that I think it’s the people aspect of it. I had a professor in college, Dr. Andrew McNitt, he’s one of the best professors I had. He gave a lecture for an hour or going on for weeks about turf and soils and dirt and at the end of it, he’d say, “Now don’t forget, the grass will grow itself, it’s everything else that’s hard.” As a college student, you don’t really understand what that means. But once you get out there, you understand what it means. If all we had to do was worry about the grass, you have a pretty easy job, but it’s the people, probably. Not just staff, it’s just people in general, especially now that we touch a lot of people in what we do. And unfortunately, you don’t really hear the thank you’s as much as you do the complaints. Sometimes it makes it difficult, it kind of deflates you sometimes. For the most part you’ve gotta let it roll off your back, but those days that you’re giving it your all and it ends with somebody complaining, it’s a little deflating. But he was right – the grass really does take care of itself to a certain aspect. It is all the other things – getting purchase orders and jumping through the hoops that you have to do to certain things, that’s the hard part.

 TTZ: Not exactly what you envisioned when you thought of a turfgrass career and being out in nature, growing grass… you weren’t imagining purchase orders at that time?

SM: No, definitely not.

TTZ: So you are part of the MTC Board – how long have you been doing that?

SM: I’m on my third year of that now.

TTZ: What made you want to step up, obviously these are all volunteer roles and it definitely takes some time and commitment, so what makes someone as busy as you jump into that?

SM: I’ve always wanted to be involved in the industry in whatever way that could be, and that alone is a driver enough for me to do it. But quite honestly, it was kind of funny at our annual conference is when we typically vote in the new board and one of the existing board members who’s still there now, I was sitting there eating lunch and he came up to me and said, “Shaun, we need one more person to fill the role. Somebody just backed out, can you do it?” I said, “Sure, why not.” No pressure, they were 15 minutes away from announcing it, but I said yeah, I think I could do that, I’d like to be a part of it. It is gratifying – you hope that you make the industry, your job, your relationships better and just leave a mark on somebody or something or some part of the industry when you leave it.

TTZ: The turfgrass associations, conferences, education, recertification, licensing … all of those things have kind of taken a hit with not being able to be physically present with each other. So how are we looking from the board perspective at MTC, for moving forward and attempting to go back to how things have been in the past?

SM: We continued, even throughout, just knowing our industry is generally speaking, hands-on people and like to see each other in person. And I think we’re striving to get back to that as quickly as we can. But at the same time, you’ve gotta look at the silver lining of things too, and although it’s not idea – I would much rather be standing in a room across from somebody at a conference – we did a virtual one this past year. I thought it went very well, we had very good attendance for it and in a way it kind of makes it more accessible for everybody at any time that they want to. So that aspect of it is really nice too. You can’t hit a homerun every time and it’s all about making the best of it, and I think everybody involved did that and will continue to do that, whatever comes at us. The education piece is never going to leave, we always need continuing education, no matter how you get it, you’re going to get it.

TTZ: I’ve been so impressed – I’ve only been working in the turfgrass industry for three years now and I’ve been so impressed at the networking and knowledge sharing. I understand on some level, there is some competition among turfgrass managers, but overall it feels very collaborative and supportive, and I think even if we’re not having conferences in person, you guys certainly are out there, trading war stories for sure.

SM: I think to your point, that’s what’s  lost in the virtual side of things is the back and forth between the people. The first conference I went to, a friend of mine said to me, you’re going to learn more after all the sessions are over and you’re all sitting around having wings and beer and talking. That’s when you’re going to figure out those tricks of the trade and people are going to start talking about what they did here and what they did there, that’s where you find those little tidbits that just make your life easier. And thye’re right, that’s a huge part of it. I think as a general statement, everbody in this industry feels that way. It’s like you’re not benefitting anything by keeping anything close to your chest. If I find an easier way to do something, I can’t wait to tell everybody. I think most everybody is that way, and that just makes you want to be part of it even more.

TTZ: Okay, I’m going to ask you a hard one now. What is a lesson you’ve learned the hard way in your career?

SM: I would say when I was at one of the minor league ball parks, I had a general manager that generally speaking wasn’t really my favorite person I ever worked for, but I was young and it’s very stressful at times there and I remember I lost my temper one time and he came to me and he said, “Sean, your hard work and stress to you is the same as everyone else’s hard work and stress is to them.” And it hit home for me, and it makes sense. Just because I don’t hitnk it’s the same or that they’re working as hard and I was also of the mindset then that if your hands arent’ dirty, and you’re not dripping sweat, you’re not working. You get older and you learn that that’s not the case. But it really put it in perspective for me and probably one of the hardest lessons I had to learn because at that time, I was losing my temper, getting upset and really was warranted.

TTZ: Right. Well, we can always blame it on being young and having lots to learn. So speaking of young and lots to learn, what would you tell young people who are just entering the field or are considering turfgrass management?

SM: I think the number one thing that I would tell a student that was getting a turfgrass degree now is remember that you’re not going to come out of college and not work and get your hands dirty. I think that’s something that a lot of people don’t realize that you’re getting your knowledge to apply out in that field, you’ve still got to be out in that field. I find, just because I do a lot of interviewing now, even with existing employees that I have, I found myself going back to them like, “You sure did leave a lot on the table.” Thinking outside the box doesn’t just apply to a task, it applies to everything that you do. So if I’m interviewing you and I ask if you’ve ever drug a baseball infield, don’t say no. Stop for a second and think in your interview and think, “What else have I done that’s similar to that?” Have you drug a horse rink, a beach, have you drug a grader up and down your driveway at home? Think about the concept behind it and apply it to something there, and always be thinking in that direction. As long as you keep doing that in everything you do, you’re going to continue to move forward. Which, that related back to everything. We talked about continuing education, we talked about getting involved in a board, you asked how I got involved, all those things. The more you do, the more you do, right? If you want to live in your own vacuum, and stay in one spot, then you will do just that, stay in one spot. If you want to keep moving forward and moving up that ladder and getting better, you’ll snatch every opportunity you have. It’s not always going to be the right choice – like I said before, not every one is a homerun, but if you didn’t try, you only have regret.

TTZ: Yes, I think I’d rather have a few mistakes that I’ve learned from than regret of not having given it a shot. Okay, so you can’t only work, so what do you do outside of work? Do you have hobbies, family stuff you do?

SM: Yes, I’ve got two little ones so they keep me quite busy for sure. Honestly, I probably do just work outside of work, we have a little slice of land, we have a couple of goats and chickens, always got some type of job or something I have to build or something around my house – I really just enjoy doing that, tinkering around on projects on my own time and just being outside. I just want to be outside. I do like to hunt, I’ve hunted all my life. But like I said, I’ve got two little kids, so my opportunities for hunting aren’t like they used to be.

TTZ: You can’t just disappear into the woods all morning every weekend.

SM: Well I can, I just can’t expect to have wife there every day when I come home from that.

TTZ: Good point. Are those little ones big enough so that you can start delegating some goat wrangling…

SM: They’re four and six, so the older is just coming into it. I did get them, they help take care of the chickens, they like getting the eggs, so that’s welcome.