NAAC stadium managers part of history at U.S. Women’s Open
ARVADA — Christi Clay and Sun Roesslein were a part of a groundbreaking crew at the U.S. Women’s Open early this summer at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Clay and Roesslein — stadium managers at the North Area Athletic Complex — were apart of a group of 29 women from all over the country who were selected to assist the grounds crew at the women’s golf major in California in early June.
“I still can’t full wrap my mind around what it meant to be apart of it and what I think it will be in the future,” said Roesslein, who as been a stadium manager at NAAC for 16 years. “It’s going to be a very important milestone for the industry.”
Women make up only 3 percent of the sports turf industry. NAAC — one of Jeffco Public Schools’ four district stadium facilities — is unique with two women working together of the past seven years at the two fields that host football, soccer and lacrosse games.
At the Olympic Club, Clay and Roesslein were unique being the only women who were stadium managers of sport turf fields.
“Most of the women were superintendents or assistant superintendents at golf courses,” Clay said of the group of 29 women. “Sun and I were the only ones that managed sport turf fields.”
The hope is to get more women into the sports turf industry.
“There is definitely a lot of support for the momentum we started this past year to keep that moving forward in the industry,” Roesslein said. “Hopefully we see the positive ripples of what we started for a long time in our industry.”
While there were several similarities in managing golf turf compared to sport turf. For example, the fairways were mowed pretty much at the same height of the soccer and natural grass football/lacrosse fields at NAAC.
A big difference was how water was used to manage the golf course compared to NAAC.
“One of the differences is we use are watering to manage to control traction and footing for the athletes where gold they aren’t as worried about that piece,” Roesslein said. “It’s more about how the ball plays and how the ball reacts to the surface.”
The plan moving forward is to have an all-women’s grounds crew come and assist for future golf events like the 2021 Solheim Cup coming up in late August, the 2022 U.S. Men’s Open and 2022 Women’s Open.
“I think the biggest thing was the connections that we made,” Clay said who added she hopes to work at the 2022 Women’s Open next June at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in North Carolina. “Inside that group of 29 women we have a tight-knit group of about 12 or 15 girls that communicate every day.”
Clay and Roesslein are focused on getting ready for the Fall 2021 sports season where NAAC is scheduled to host 26 football games and more than 50 boys soccer games.
“It was really validation that we are doing the right things here,” Roesslein said of her experience at the Olympic Club. “At a high-level, super prestigious golf course that hosts the USGA Women’s Open we are doing the same agronomic practice here at a public school faculty. We are going the right things here to maintain a really healthy playing surface for football, soccer and lacrosse.”
