Karl and Andy talk turf this Grounds Week
March 1-7 marks the Grounds Management Association’s inaugural Grounds Week.
Launched by the leading not-for-profit membership body for grounds professionals and volunteers, the week aims to celebrate and highlight the vital role professional grounds staff, volunteers and the turf sector play in making sport possible.
Following a difficult year for the sector due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, Grounds Week aims to showcase grounds staff and the amazing work they do – and have continued to do – despite sport coming to halt. It also comes after a year where parks and green spaces have been valuable to the public’s health, with increased use for ‘daily exercise’ and physical activity.
To mark the week, we hear from Andy Gray, our Head of Grounds and Estate at St. George’s Park and Wembley Stadium’s Grounds Manager Karl Standley. The pair first met back at Southampton Football Club, where Andy was working when Karl undertook some work experience back in 2002. At Wembley, Karl now manages a team of four – which in normal circumstances rises to include a pool of around 20 match day staff who support around events – whilst Andy looks after a team of 14 at St. George’s Park.
To find out more information about the Grounds Management Association and the important work they do within grounds maintenance, please see here.
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So, Karl and Andy – can we start by asking how you both got into your current roles?
KS: It all started back at school with a career advisor and opening up to them about my love at sport. As well as sport and football, I loved gardening too. I started growing things in the back garden in the summer – the first thing I grew was some tomatoes, and I just thought making something from a tiny seed was quite cool. Linking that into sport, and greenkeeping and groundsmanship came on the agenda. After two years at Sparsholt College I reached out to Southampton FC and did ten weeks work experience there – and my first day on the job was with Andy Gray! We were in a boiling hot tractor seeding the pitches at the training ground, and the machine was so loud I don’t think I asked one question. A few weeks later I went to the stadium and just fell in love with the atmosphere. After 4½ years at Southampton the job at Wembley came up, and today (1 March) marks my 15 year anniversary!
AG: My journey started at school as well, same as Karl. I didn’t really enjoy it and even to this day the courses and education side of things isn’t really for me. I did the careers advisor thing and I think mine came out as a dental technician, but I knew I wanted to work outside and to do something practical. I ended up going to the local golf course and asking for work experience. The two weeks of Easter holidays in 1997 should have been spent revising for my GCSEs, but instead they were spent on a golf course raking bunkers. I loved it, got a weekend job off the back of it, and then like Karl went to Sparsholt. I did a National Certificate one-year course and then same as Karl, my tutor enquired about some work experience for me at Southampton as football has always been my life. Work experience turned into a two-year apprenticeship in August 1998, and I was at Southampton until August 2020. I loved every day of my 22 years there, including the four year period in the middle with a certain Karl Standley! But probably in the opposite way to Karl, I experienced the stadium environment and the training ground environment, and I preferred the training ground. It’s more relaxed and laid back. So, when the job offer came up a year ago to work at the training ground of our England teams, I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do.
What you like most about your job?
AG: I haven’t really got into the project work yet, because I’ve only been here six months and COVID has delayed a lot, but I’ve always said that my job is essentially my hobby as well. I enjoy being at work, it’s not a chore. They say: ‘find a job that you like, and you’ll never work a day in your life,’ and that has definitely been the case for me – I’ve never not wanted to come to work. You still have things to do, deadlines to meet and people to see, but because you’re outside it gives you that element of freedom. On nice day when the sun is shining, that’s what it’s all about.
KS: For me, it’s probably being challenged I think with the stadium, the events, the schedules. Sometimes they’re very daunting but you have discussions about future schedules and you suddenly start thinking outside the box, what could you do differently, and how could you tweak this or change that. Match days are draining, but having those moments like the pre-match entertainment for an FA Cup Final when you’ve got 90,000 fans, pyrotechnics and the stadium erupting, and you know that for 90 minutes they’re going to play on our pitch that we’ve been preparing for however many days… it’s the most amazing feeling.
What are the biggest challenges at each venue?
KS: I think our biggest challenges come from the size of the stadium – it’s a kilometre in circumference with a 52m high roof, and it’s in shade for six months of the year. It has its own microclimate, so the conditions inside the bowl are different from what you see outside the stadium. Throw the number and the variety of events in the mix, whether that’s boxing, football, and England World Cup qualifier, rugby league… it makes for a good challenge.
AG: So far, it’s the weather. It’s not anything that anyone else doesn’t experience, but SGP is very open so the wind is probably the biggest factor. There are two things you can’t control – weather and fixtures, which for SGP means training sessions and camps. With the international calendar, all the camps happen at the same time. If you get a training camp or a fixture coupled with bad weather, you can’t do much about it other than get on with it and manage it the best you can. That’s always a challenge for the 22 years that I’ve been doing it.
How has this past year affected your roles and priorities?
AG: Just keeping everyone safe and reassured that coming into work is safe, because the whole country is being told to stay at home but we’re telling our teams to come into work. It’s the processes and protocols that we have to put in place, and then obviously police as well. It’s taken up quite a lot of my time, not just here but at my old job as well. It’s been tough and I’m sure we’re not the only ones who can’t wait for things to go back to normal.
KS: I think it’s the same as Andy – when the rest of the country is being told not to go to work, we’re still coming in. The whole of last year it was simply about people. Making sure they’re safe, they’re happy and giving them time. Pre-COVID, you were here, there and everywhere and by the end of the day I’d be asking myself ‘did I actually have my lunch today, did I actually speak to my team, did I have a breather?’ We’ve really made an effort to stop and talk to each other this year.
Why do you think a campaign like Grounds Week is important for the grounds industry?
KS: I think shedding a light on our industry and giving it a bit more exposure from grassroots right up to the elite level is really important. Andy and I both mentioned it earlier, but until we went to a career advisor and someone gave us a direction, I didn’t know what the grounds industry was – I had no idea. I think then growing up in the industry one thing we’ve definitely seen is the lack of diversity. I think it’s a responsibility for us to put it onto people’s platforms, to say these are the opportunities and this is a genuine career option. We recently had our virtual match day team training session and we’ve had four women join our team which is something I’ve been pushing for – so we’ve taken our first steps, but there’s a hundred more to make. And then it’s a celebration too, because some of the work the grassroots teams have done, especially in lockdowns, has been sensational.
AG: I think it’s an industry which, for want of a better term, sometimes feels sorry for itself. You often hear people referring to football clubs ‘from the Chairman all the way to the groundsman at the bottom’. Ultimately, to play the game you need three things: people, a ball and a surface. Everything else is additional to that. If a team doesn’t win, you often hear that it’s the pitch’s fault, so you very often get the flack, but you very rarely get the credit with it. Karl knows that better than anyone looking after the most famous pitch in the world. I think if people are viewing the pitches with that level of scrutiny, then there should be a level of support and respect for those who look after it and nurture it and that’s what Grounds Week promotes.
And also on Karl’s point about diversity, it’s an industry I got into because I wanted to be outside and because I loved football, but I was never going to be a player – so it’s an avenue into the game that you wouldn’t necessarily think of. Given the progression of the women’s game, as a next step I’d like to see women and girls who, like me, maybe can’t make it as a player, but realise that this is an alternative route into the game. And that’s important, because as with any other area of the game, females in the crowd will then see females on the pitch and think, I can do that. It’s about raising awareness and removing the stigma that it’s a men’s environment.
And finally, what advice would you give a young person considering a career in the grounds industry?
AG: I would say go out and volunteer. I did that, I know Karl did that. Put yourself out there to help yourself. Wherever you are, you can go down to your local football club and help out. There are loads of clubs between steps 3-7 who would love a hand in looking after their pitch. And then when an opportunity or a role comes up, if you have on your CV that you’ve volunteered you’ll be in much stronger position.
KS: Andy’s hit the nail on the head with that one. It’s how we started, and I remember sending out 10 or more letters to all the big clubs asking questions about their pitches. You’re not going to get given this – you’ve got to take the first step to reach out. We might have opportunities in our team, but we don’t know who’s out there. With the world of social media these days, we’re all contactable and it takes a click of a button to ask someone a question and ask for a chat or some advice.