From the editor By Mike Jiggens www.turfandrec.com Reader Service Print and digital subscription inquiries or changes, please contact Anita Madden, Audience Development Manager Tel: (416) 510-5183 Fax: (416) 510-6875 email: amadden@annexbusinessmedia.com T A genuine passion for sports turf upkeep speak about his involvement in sports field management. In 2017, he conducted an on-field demonstration on the art of properly measuring out a baseball infield during Sports Turf Canada’s Ontario fall field day in Richmond Hill. He had the attention of dozens of muni-cipal parks and recreation em-ployees who were keen to know the finer details of such work. hose with a deep passion for the work they do, who pay attention to the smallest of details and who take pride in the finished job will ultimately be rewarded. Such was the case in June for Trevor Warner, a City of Wood-stock, Ont. sports field skilled labourer, who was bestowed the honour of Canada’s sports turf manager of the year by Sports Turf Canada. Honoured only a couple of years ago by Turf & Rec as one of Canada’s “top 10 under 40” among professionals employed in the turf and grounds main-tenance industry, he speaks passionately about sports field management – especially when it comes to baseball dia-monds. Once upon a time, the dia-mond was his second home. Warner was a promising lefthanded pitcher who was of-fered a partial scholarship to play baseball at a U.S. college. It took a nasty injury to curb his playing ambitions, but the in-terest and pride he developed while maintaining his college’s home field – one of the team’s mandatory tasks – left a mark that has remained ever since. I caught up with Trevor days after he was named Canada’s sports turf manager of the year, interviewing him for this issue’s cover story and record-ing our chat for a soon-to-be uploaded podcast. This wasn’t the first time I’ve heard him @TurfandRec Our June/July issue featured as its cover story the behind-the-scenes account of the field’s transformation. Scan the QR code to read the issue now! Months later, Warner was a panelist at a sports turf work-shop put on by Nutrite – again sharing his wealth of know-ledge with his colleagues from other municipalities. At each session, he spoke with passion about the means to achieve perfection, playabil-ity and safety in the area of sports field management. He rightly speaks of what he does as a “career” and not as a “job.” His advice for those seeking employment in the in-dustry is to acquire an intern-ship somewhere and develop a “taste and understanding” of the profession. “This is not just a job. It’s a career. It’s a passion. That’s how you should approach it.” Furthermore, he says, “The @TurfandRec practical experience of a job like this is almost as big as the educational side of things. Understand that it’s not just a landscape job. You need to have that passion. You’ve got to care.” The care Warner shows for the fields under his wing didn’t go unnoticed by Sports Turf Canada’s selection committee, and Woodstock has been eyed as a site for the association’s Ontario fall field day once it’s deemed safe to again attend large outdoor gatherings. COVID-19 forced the Ontario Turfgrass Symposium to deliver its traditional February offering virtually. Warner was tapped as one of the speakers, chronicling the city’s transformation of a soccer field into a multi-purpose playing field, albeit one tailored primarily for football. He took his audience through the step-by-step process necessary to produce a field Woodstock’s minor football athletes found to their liking. The project was completed largely in-house, saving the municipality a significant amount of money, and was es-sentially done from scratch. The attention to detail Warner provided was undoubtedly one of the factors that led to his se-lection as Canada’s sports turf manager of the year. Aside from our cover story, this issue includes our annual buyers’ guide and directory – a source reference for finding equipment, materials and servi-ces from manufacturers, dis-tributors and dealers across Canada. Each sector of the pro-fessional turf industry – land-scaping, golf and sports turf – is well represented in this guide. Mail: 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400 Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 Editor Mike Jiggens mjiggens@annexbusinessmedia.com National Advertising Manager Rebecca Lewis 519-400-0322 rlewis@annexbusinessmedia.com Nashelle Barsky 905-431-8892 nbarsky@annexbusinessmedia.com Account Coordinator Mary Burnie 519-429-5175 mburnie@annexbusinessmedia.com Group Publisher Todd Humber thumber@annexbusinessmedia.com COO Scott Jamieson sjamieson@annexbusinessmedia.com Printed in Canada ISSN 1186-0170 PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT #40065710 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Published 7 times a year – Jan/Feb, Mar, Apr/May, Jun, Aug/Sept, Oct, Nov/Dec Canada – 1 year $35.00; 2 year $45.00 3 years $55.50 (plus applicable taxes HST 86717 2652 RT0001 Occasionally, Turf and Recreation will mail information on behalf of industry related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. Annex Privacy Office privacy@annexbusinessmedia.com Tel: 800.668.2374 No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission © 2021 Annex Business Media. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. facebook.com/turfandrec turfandrec.com 4 TURF & REC August/September 2021
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