Posted Date: 11/08/2019
Livingston ISD Head Groundskeeper Jimmy Patschke brings 36 years of experience to LISD from USDA where his primary job was to investigate plant and animal diseases. He has been with LISD for 7 years and his responsibilities include seeding, treating, fertilizing and maintaining the competition and practice fields in the district.
The grounds team of Patschke, Kevin Laber, Tyler Bell, and Benjamin Laber spread their time between the maintenance of Lions Stadium, Baseball-Softball complex, Livingston Junior High football field, three practice fields at the LHS campus as well as the Soccer Complex. The grounds crew mows and weeds all fields twice a week. The fields are mowed in different patterns to keep the grass from growing in one direction. Aerating the fields at the baseball-softball complex helps with the hardness of the fields. The baseball-softball complex fields are treated with herbicides twice a year and they have begun planting the perennial ryegrass because Bermuda goes dormant during the winter. Patschke sets up fertilizer programs and dates for all the fields. The baseball-softball fields are not kept in game condition because it is the off-season for the sport. This gives the grounds crew a chance to treat the fields with top choice granules that will allow one year of protection against the ants. Patschke says, “We also keep the baseball fields clean by edging and keep the fence lines clean from weeds. We like to keep the lines on the field by removing unwanted weeds from growing in the playing area.” He adds “We use selective and non-selective herbicides. Sometimes you have brownout on the playing grass after the use of herbicides but it doesn’t kill it, just sets it back a little.”
The grounds crew stripes the field at Lions Stadium for the home football games. They use a big sprayer to paint the lines if the ground is wet they use a smaller sprayer so they don’t create ruts in the field. They paint the Livingston Lion logo in the center of the field and pink ribbons for the Pink Out games in October. Corky Cochran is an LISD volunteer and has filmed the freshman, JV, and Varsity football teams for more than 48 years. Cochran said, “I’m very impressed with the fields and proud of the image they show. They paint the boundary lines, the lion logo and the pink ribbons, it looks first class.”