Ray Cipperly Field of the Middlesex County Vo-Tech campus in Brunswick has been named 2020 Baseball Field for schools and parks.
The Sports Turf Managers Association, the professional agreement for 2,700 men and women who run sports fields around the world, presents the industry’s highest honors to members who manage baseball, soccer, soccer, softball and other sports play surfaces in professional schools, school -12) and park and recreation levels.
Keith Fisher, box foreman, identified by his efforts.
“2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, and sports box managers have been forced to adapt and locate cutting-edge tactics in high-quality boxing situations for all athletes,” Kim Heck, CAE, CEO of STMA, said in a list statement. “Each of our winners has demonstrated a commitment to excellence while respecting STMA members’ unwavering commitment to box protection and gameplay.
Fisher has been working with Middlesex County technical and vocational schools for just over a year. He came here from a position in the Toms River Regional School District, and before that spent time with the New York Yankees, Lakewood BlueClaws and Atlantic City Surf.
“As a school district land foreman, I am aware of all playgrounds and grounds in general. We have staff in each and every school that is on site and manages the fields and grounds during the seasons.
“My special role at Cipperly Field is to manage it on a high-level playing surface, which includes mowing the lawn every day, running the soil, and maintaining the right amount of moisture to keep the box beautiful,” Fisher said in an interview.
“We mow the lawn each and every day at Cipperly Field baseball season and each and every one and every day of the developing season. We paint in the dirt spaces each and every day the baseball season, which includes paintings on marble and mound spaces, adding paddocks.
“In addition, we want to manage irrigation on a daily basis to keep moisture at the right level. We also maintain the spaces of the precautionary track so that there is a safe transition from the lawn to the precautionary track and with dirt inside the lawn.
“In the fall, we will ventilate, then we will sprinkle with an aggregate of ryegrass and then we will dress in sand. As for winter, once the grass stops growing, we leave it alone, it wants to rest now,” Fisher said.
Cipperly Field is mainly used during the season through the East Brunswick Tech Tigers school baseball team, however, the school hosts other occasions, such as the semi-finals and finals of the Greater Middlesex Conference tournament and state championship games.
A 14-judge panel independently evaluated work on gameplay, surface appearance, use of cutting-edge solutions, effective budget use, and implementation of a comprehensive agronomic program.
“We won [this award] thanks to our Facilities Department, Mr. Fran Cap, our administration, the Board of Education, our athletic director Michael Pede and beyond and provide workers who helped create the basis of the existing box: Scott Thomas, Fred Broxmeyer, Kevin Mikutsky. All the more, the boys’ hobby before me, Ray Cipperly, Ryan Radcliffe, Mike Morvay – without those guys, the box is not what it is.
“My hobby of having a beautiful playground for athletes playing here is what has allowed Cipperly Field to stand out from the crowd,” Fisher continued. “I am very honored to get this award. This is all I’ve been looking for since I started in the industry in 1998.
“I have told my children that if they need to put their call behind everything they do, make sure you do as productive as possible and I have driven you in all the spaces I have worked in. When I was last hired in October, I told the superintendent and the board that I was going out to win the STMA box of the year and I was able to verify that,” he said.
Winners will earn a badge, be identified at STMA’s annual awards banquet, and appear in a 2021 factor from SportsField Management, STMA’s official monthly publication.
“It is a great honor for our Ray Cipperly box to be named by Sports Turf Management as Field of the Year. Our staff, led by Keith Fisher, tirelessly paints the quality game box created through Ray years ago.
“The District incredibly supports this adventure by offering the investment to do many things Keith wants to do. Let’s congratulate Keith and his team on this honor,” Michael J said. Pede, Director of Athletics, Physical Education and Health at Middlesex. County technical and professional schools, in an interview.
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