A detailed look at the Tar Heels Field Turf Crew and their creations

The North Carolina Tar Heels football team isn’t the only thing that has been impressive during the season.

There’s another star team at Kenan Memorial Stadium when the Tar Heels kickoff, and their work is usually done behind the scenes first. All of the cool details you see on the field when the Tar Heels play is done by the university’s field turf crew which works hard throughout the week to get all of the detailing right.

It’s a process that usually takes the entire week, but in the end it produces great results similar to the football team’s excellent 2015 season thus far. As you can tell by the images from the crew’s Twitter account, the detailing and end work is very impressive:

“We take a lot of pride in what we do,” said UNC Sports Field Turf Manager Casey Carrick. “Painting the football field is the biggest thing we do and we know at that any given moment it can be seen on the national stage. It’s really cool to step back and see what we have created.”

Carrick is a member of the Sports Turf Managers Association which has 2,600 members across 34 chapters in the United States. Founded in 1981, the association is a not-for-profit and is for men & women who manage sports fields. The association also has a big role in helping these field managers, granting $250,000 in SAFE scholarships and grants.

He’s been in college athletics for nine years, working in the field turf business and has spent the last 4-5 years at North Carolina. Despite being a graduate of North Carolina State, he’s happy in Chapel Hill.

“I’m a little bit of both,” Carrick said when asked if he was a Tar Heels or Wolfpack fan. “It got me in a little bit of trouble my first year (laughing).”

For Carrick and his outstanding team, the process begins every week in a meeting with the marketing department to discuss upcoming promotions. The team at North Carolina features eight field turf workers who cover nearly 20 acres of sports fields at the university. Their work includes keeping the fields up to standards, mowing and all of the day-to-day operations.

“We usually have a general idea of what we want to do,” Carrick said. “It can change though at times but we meet every week and go over it all.”

Sometimes the plans even include ideas from the fans who usually submit ideas to the crew and on Twitter. “We have people send us in ideas on Twitter all of the time. Every once in a while we have used and idea and just tweaked a little bit.”

Carrick says he usually gets good feedback on the designs and ideas they produce weekly. “We have a really good crew here (UNC),” Carrick said. “It’s fun to do and it’s fun to paint the field and then the end result. Most of the fans love it.”

But it’s not only the fans who are enjoying the crew’s creations. The players themselves sometimes take a moment to admire the work that has been done.

“Sometimes the players will walk out when we are painting as the locker room is right by the field,” Carrick said. ” They usually compliment us and give us a thumbs up.”

With the North Carolina football teams success this season, the atmosphere at games has been on another level. That means with the more people who are at the games, the more people who will see the field design. Perhaps the crew’s best design came this past Saturday when the Tar Heels beat the Miami Hurricanes at home during Military Appreciation Week.

With the theme being military, Carrick and the crew took it to the next level and may have produced their best design of the 2015 season. It’s also a favorite of Carrick’s every year.

“I asked myself what we could do this year,” Carrick said. “We started by putting in an American flag and the feedback was good. We even have a former Marine on the staff who paints and he loves the design.”

After seeing a design like that completed after all of the hard work, it must be an amazing feeling for Carrick and the crew. They get to do designs seven times a year as they can show their creativity.

“We have a really good crew here at North Carolina and it’s fun to do,” said Carrick. “Our motivation is doing a good job. It’s fun to paint and see what we can come up with, most fans love it. Even other schools compliment us. It’s a good feeling.”

And those compliments are very well-deserved.