2010 NERTF Turf Bowl
The 2nd Annual Turf Bowl competition was held at the 13th annual conference and show in Providence on March 3, 2010. Professors from the Universities of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island provided test questions, plant samples for identification, pictures of infected turf, and insect displays to test the abilities of the students to recognize the challenges that managing turf might have. Teams of three were organized within each school and the students were eager to get to work. This year’s competition was dominated by the University of Massachusetts. The top three teams were:
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1st Place-UMass Team #4
Lisa Golden, Tim Kaija, Eric Cronin (pictured)
2nd Place-UMass Team #3
Mike McCormick, Noah Goldstein, Chip Fitzgerald
3rd Place-UMass Team #7
Alex Brooks, Shawn Wynn, Scott Pierre
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2009 NERTF Turf Bowl
The first annual New England Regional Turf Bowl was held March 4, 2009 during the New England Regional Turfgrass Conference and Show in Providence, RI. Sponsored by the NERTF, Inc. Students from URI, UConn, and UMass competed in teams of 3 in an educational hands-on competition to identify weeds, diseases, insects, plant material. Written tests, potted weeds, bottled insects, displayed seed and pictured diseases provided by university educators were analyzed, discussed, identified and recorded by each 3-person team for scoring.
Proctored by turfgrass educators and NERTF Immediate Past-President and Turf Bowl Organizer Robert Ruszala from Hickory Ridge Country Club. Students had more than 1 hour to complete the 60 test questions and 25 identification samples before entering their answer sheets. The first place teams received champion plaques and their names will be added to the NERTF Turf Bowl Champions Plaque to be displayed in the NERTF office and added to each year. Each participating school also received a donation to the school’s turf club.
Congratulations to all competitors! The following are the top three teams:
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1st Place-Team #2 UMass
Shawn Wynn
Scott St. Pierre
Alex Brooks |
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2nd Place-Team #3 UMass
Noah Goldstein
Robert “Chip” Fitzgerald
John Viscariello
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3rd Place-Team #5 UMass
Eddie Coffin
Steve Copeland
Will Crosby
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