January 07, 2004
Texas A&M athletic field manager Leo Goertz was awarded the 2004 American Baseball Coaches Association/Turface Field Maintenance Award at the ABCA National Convention on January 4, in San Antonio.
"This is a nice honor for my staff and we appreciate the ABCA recognizing the work of the countless number of groundskeepers around the country," Goertz said. "The grounds crew at Texas A&M prides itself on giving the student-athlete the best surfaces on which to compete and practice. We appreciate the athletic department and coaches" dedication to the quality of the playing surfaces at Texas A&M."
Goertz and his four full-time assistants - assistant athletic field manager Craig Potts, Nick McKenna, Brad Pace and Matthew Bartek - and five student assistants are in charge of maintaining all of the natural grass playing and practice surfaces used by the student-athletes at Texas A&M.
Olsen Field, the home of Texas A&M baseball, has long been recognized as one of the top baseball surfaces in the country at any level of competition.
In 1985 Goertz received the inaugural Diamond Dry Collegiate Baseball Groundskeeper Award and was honored by the Beam Clay Company in 1987.
More recently, he and his staff earned the National Turface Softball Field of the Year Award in 1999 and the Soccer Field of the Year Award in 2000.