COVER STORY
C O M MU NITY T U RFG RA S S M A NA G E ME N T
Dr. Dan Hollandsworth enjoys a match-up on the football field he manages.
A LABOR OF LOVE By Julie Holt, Managing Editor, Leading Edge Communications
W
hen you enter the office of Dr. Dan Hollandsworth, Assistant Principal at Heritage Middle School, you’ll find the trappings of most public school administrators – leadership books, disciplinary forms, a student Chromebook awaiting repair, stacks of stuffed-full file folders, holding many years’ worth of planning and management for a school with over 800 adolescents. What you’d find here that is uncommon in many such offices is a five-gallon bucket of field paint. In the 2023–2024 school year, Hollandsworth took on the daunting task of improving and maintaining the school’s football and practice fields. Sports field management is not included in school admin coursework, training, or job descriptions, but this assistant principal, like many coaches, parents and teachers, has stepped up to the plate to fill a need for both his students and the community. Despite having no prior experience in turfgrass management, Hollandsworth knew he had to make an effort to improve his school’s sports fields for two reasons. One factor was finances. “We had a company come out and they were doing weed mitigation, and it didn’t work,” Hollandsworth says. “We paid a significant amount of money and we still had hemlock, clover, crabgrass, dallisgrass, we had everything. That’s too much money, and we don’t have the budget to waste.” But finances were secondary to Hollandsworth. What really ignited his drive to take on this project was his students. “Our coach told us that kids at other schools were making fun of our kids because our facilities looked so bad. And I was like, ‘not on my watch’. This is something that I can do, that I can learn.”
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TENNESSEE TURFGRASS AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2025
Volunteer sports field managers give their own free time – Hollandsworth’s Sunday afternoons are often spent on the field.
