Thursday, Dec. 08, 2011

Home Turf: The Return of Corey Russell

jblackmon@TheSunNews.com

Corey Russell is the Sports Turf Manager for Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Photo by Janet Blackmon Morgan.

 

Corey Russell spent the 2009 and 2010 seasons with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans organization as assistant groundskeeper, soaking in all he could from then Senior Sports Turf Manager Chris “Butter” Ball. In November 2010, Russell left the area for Round Rock, Texas, for the 2011 season with the Texas Rangers’ AAA affiliate, the Round Rock Express. But he has come full circle. Ball advanced to the position of head groundskeeper with Atlanta Braves AAA affiliate, the Gwinnett Braves, which opened up a new opportunity for Russell, who has stepped in as Sports Turf Manager for the Pelicans.

From Ypsilanti, Mich., Russell garnered a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Sports Management at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich. and later earned a certificate in Sports Turf Grass Management through the University of Georgia.

“When I was in college, my original goal was to be in professional baseball,” he says, and he had an eye to this as he worked at a golf course in Michigan during and after college. He later worked for a parks and rec department in Michigan as well. “I set up adult softball leagues, youth baseball and T-Ball leagues, and I ran some camps – but when I was outside I had the most fun – dragging the fields and getting them ready for all of the games.” In 2008, he was searching a professional baseball employment site for leads, clicked on the job description, and this is how he found out about groundskeeper Ball.

“Chris won quite a few awards, so I figured that if I was going to learn from anyone, I should learn from him because he is one of the best.”

Russell’s scope of duties covers anything that has to do with the field at the Pelicans’ stadium. “Anything inside the concrete walls is around the stadium is my responsibility – from batting practice to any game preparation,” he says. “I’ll do various projects with our stadium operations manager as needed off season, but I’m pretty much just out there in the green stuff.”

Being “in the green stuff,” especially on game days, can be arduous. “We’re here about ten hours prior, doing daily maintenance with mowing, and then there’s dirt work – patching from the game the night before. Then we work all the way through and about 45 minutes to an hour after the game – patching the game mound and the home plate area. We groom all of the spots where the grass and dirt meet, with a push broom, trying to separate as much dirt from the turf as possible.”

The field is maintained tightly until the mid-November when it is overseeded with Ryegrass, which Russell calls a cold season grass. “That’s what you usually mainly see on opening day, and the Bermuda grass slowly comes in.”

A factor in his decision to come back to Myrtle Beach was water, in part because he grew up in close proximity to the Great Lakes. He and girlfriend Ashley Richards enjoyed a couple of trips to Charleston and he cites a camping trip to the Outer Banks as a favorite.

Downtime could find Russell at Bumstead’s Pub or Mellow Mushroom, sampling the good beer. But Russell has also gotten into home brewing. “The operations guy here, Mike Snow, got into this too so we’ve kind of got our own home brewing crew going on, and it’s fun.” So are we to expect a Pelicans Pilsner?

Many remember the late Dinger, the Homerun Dog and his replacement, Deuce. Russell has an Australian Shepherd named Maggie. “I get her out on the field and throw her a Frisbee when the team’s not out there,” he says. “That’s one of my favorite things to do for her.” We had to ask if Maggie might be in the running for a stand-in to Deuce. But being an Australian Shepherd, wouldn’t Maggie be more interested in, well, herding the team?

“Exactly. That would be her. She’d go up and bark at all of the players and go take the game ball away from everybody.”

And Russell says he intends to stay as long as the Pelicans organization will have him. “It’s fun being part of the community here. This is close-knit, and I know that a lot of people take pride in this field. In Texas, the stadium held about 14,000 people. Right here it’s a little more intimate. There’s more of a hometown feel here, and I’m glad to be back.”

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Know of a local with an interesting job or career that should be given the Working 4 A Living treatment? Contact Roger Yale at rgyale@gmail.com