Athletic Field Crew Member

Swarthmore College is a highly selective liberal arts college located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, whose mission combines academic rigor with social responsibility. Swarthmore has a strong institutional commitment to inclusive excellence and nondiscrimination in its educational program and employment practices and encourages candidates who will further advance the goal of fostering a diverse and inclusive community. As one of the nation’s finest institutions of higher learning, Swarthmore College is global in outlook and draws students from around the nation and world. The 425‐acre campus is a designated arboretum, complete with gardens, rolling lawns, a creek, wooded hills, and hiking trails in the Crum Woods.

Who We Are:

The Grounds Department of Swarthmore College is responsible for maintaining the collections of the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College, as well as maintaining a safe outdoor environment for all College students, staff, faculty, and guests. The department consists of a Director of Grounds, Assistant Director of Grounds, two horticulture crews, each consisting of a Garden Supervisor, an Assistant Garden Supervisor and 5 gardeners. In addition, there is a Grounds mechanic and an athletic fields crew that oversees the care and maintenance of the outdoor athletic fields.

The opportunity:

Provides timely and reliable support for maintenance and care of athletic fields and campus turf.  Horticultural responsibilities include caring for the plant collections and landscaped areas surrounding athletic facilities and fields. Grounds keeping responsibilities include maintaining safe paths, roads, turf areas, fields, and additional properties of the College; providing assistance for College events; providing assistance during weather emergencies, snow and ice removal in winter, and for other grounds keeping responsibilities. 

Essential Responsibilities

Athletic Field and Turfgrass Maintenance Tasks

• Performs daily turf maintenance on the College’s athletic fields, synthetic fields, tennis courts, and track including mowing, fertilization, application of turf chemicals, field painting and chalking, event set-up and breakdowns–all with minimal supervision.
• Safely performs daily maintenance and operation of various turf equipment including mowers, tractors, tractor attachments, infield groomer, ride-on sprayer/spreader, irrigation equipment, hand tools, and small engines.
• Performs daily, weekly, and seasonal maintenance on athletic equipment to provide teams with safe and functional goals, benches, and other equipment to support practices and games.
• Performs layouts and painting per NCAA specifications for multiple types of varsity, club, and intramural league sports.  Must stay up to date on NCAA rules and regulations regarding field layouts.
• Performs set-up, operation, maintenance, and programming of multiple types of irrigation systems to provide adequate irrigation to all athletic fields. 
• Performs seasonal renovation of athletic fields and campus turf in order to provide safe and healthy fields for the next season.
• Performs and assists in maintaining and renovating campus turfgrass areas around academic, administrative and residential areas in cooperation with the horticultural staff.
• Performs grooming, debris removal, line painting, and periodic maintenance of synthetic turf.
• Performs precise granular and liquid fertilizer and chemical applications to turfgrass in accordance with the laws governed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
• Performs seasonal renovation projects on all aspects of athletic fields including infield skins, pitcher’s mound rebuilds, and sod work.
• Performs above duties in a timely fashion in accordance to strict schedules set by practice, game, and event times with minimal supervision.
• Assists with overseeing work performed by subcontractors on the athletic fields.         

Horticultural Duties

• Assists in performing horticultural tasks and maintaining the plant collections around athletic facilities by doing timely plantings, weeding, mulching, pruning, fertilizing, irrigating, and other cultural practices in order to maintain campus aesthetics.
• Assists in performing detailed horticultural work in gardens around campus.
• Assists in performing maintenance on the College’s green roofs, stormwater control devices and Crum Woods natural area, and gives support with sustainability efforts within the department and across the entire property. 
• Safely and proficiently uses hand gardening tools including pruners, shovels, rakes, loppers, chainsaws, weed whackers and hedge shears.

Groundskeeping Duties

• Keeps campus areas