Dreams of Fields

"If you build it, he will (mow)"

For the past two decades, Jay Byram has been working behind the scenes of Maple River schools with a solitary purpose: to make the public tax-dollar shine. The 1996 Maple River graduate attended Rochester Community College, where he earned a degree in Horticulture with an emphasis in Golf Course Management. Even though Maple River doesn’t have a golf course within the boundaries of the district, when the position for groundskeeper opened, he left his position at the Mankato Country Club and jumped at the opportunity. “My main goal is that when someone comes to Maple River, they see it's a well maintained facility for a public school. It's not always easy for a public school, but when someone comes from out of town to come to, let's say, an athletic game. I want him to say, ‘Oh man.’  For Byram, it’s all about attention to detail. “I want a good quality field  for our players, and just something to show that, you know, Maple River is doing it the right way. It comes down to attention to detail, weeds in the landscape, or just weed whipping around a fence here and there, just little things. 

Byram currently manages eight separate fields along with the landscaping at the new school complex, but it wasn’t too long ago that Byram spent as much time in a truck as he did on a mower. “When I first started, I was going to Good Thunder, Amboy, Minnesota Lake and Mapleton. I was maintaining four sites and all those had ball fields too.” While the new school is in its third year, Byram’s “office” is still in flux. The “old” bus garage now serves as home base for his equipment (along with hitting cages for baseball and a workshop for the robotics team), and with storage at the new building at a premium, he anticipates the space will be used for years to come. Over the past three years, equipment had been shuffled back and forth between the new site and the athletic complex that houses the track, football field, practice field, and youth fields. Next year, Byram will receive a new shop to streamline his job’s efficiency, but he doubts if he’ll stop making the trip across town. “We're gonna maintain these (fields) for the foreseeable future. These fields out here, especially the ball fields–there's never enough ball fields. They all get used every night of the week.”

After months of tending to the fields, Byram has just finished putting the fields to sleep for the winter by clearing out the watering systems. Managing a football field for several weeks during the season is a job within a job. “It's actually one of my favorite things to do. It's kind of been our pride and joy–kind of a show piece. But it has been a process. When I first started, it didn't look like that. It's come a long way.” Along with improving the quality of the field, Byram has also improved his efficiency in getting the field ready for game days. “I typically paint it before every home game, which is, we're getting really good at it. It used to be an all day ordeal, Now we usually start on a Thursday and then just get a couple touch ups things to do on Friday.”

Byram’s job duties often change depending on the season. With the arrival of winter, he is responsible for maintaining the sidewalks around the school, and when the forecast is clear, he maximizes his budget by doing maintenance and repairs on his equipment. By the time the first blade of grass appears in the spring, he needs to be ready to get the facilities ready for spring sports. “80% of my job is outdoors.  I'm pretty much my own boss. You know, yes, there's the suggestions on things that need to be done. But for the most part, my day to day operation is what I feel needs to be done. I think the administration trusts me enough to kind of maintain what I need to do, what I need to do, and, and I guess they're always there to, you know, suggestions or whatever. But for my day to day things, I’m a jack of all trades.”

Byram helped transport each classroom (loaded up onto pallets) to the new facility, and while the teachers were up and running for the 2023 school year, Byram began with a blank slate as he waited for lawn and landscaping to take root. “It's been kind of hit and miss. The grass on one field didn't come in as good as the other, and so it all takes time. It was kind of mostly in (the contractors) hands up until this fall. They probably reseeded some of that stuff four or five times. We didn't take over any of that until we thought it was suitable to take over and the softball field was good enough. It's like, okay, we got it from here. The rest of it, we just weren't gonna let them off the hook for the most part.” 

When spring of 2025 arrives, Byram will finally have the envisioned dream. Both the baseball and softball fields will be utilized, the practice fields will likely be ready for the fall, and the track and facilities building will be added. Having worked so intensively with Swanson Field, Byram also realizes that a new football field can’t be brought into reality with a magic wand. It’ll take time. “I'm not the first one in the loop,” Byram admitted, but he still is making preparations for the future. “The turf is planted. It's irrigated. We're gonna have three years just to establish that turf, and it won't be touched.” While there are no definitive timelines for the facility, the location will be in the southeast corner of the property behind the berm of the softball fields. With concession stands, bases for lights, and the new track coming in the spring, Byram knows he’ll need to have his grass ready for Friday Night Lights one day in the future. 

To help Byram maintain the school and the eight fields (including the baseball field in Minnesota Lake), the school hired another jack of all trades, Payton See. “ I went to bat for him. We  kind of created a position for him, you know, and gave him a bump up and raise. Because I said, ‘if I don't have him, I can't do this.’ And so they, they bumped up his and Brad's (Lawson) pay a little bit and, and kind of, you know, made it more of an official position than just summer help.

While Byram is finally able to start taking the grounds from blueprint to reality, he admits there are a few unexpected challenges.  “Another thing that's changed at the new school is the irrigation system.” Previously, Byram only had a handful of zones to winterize, “now we got like 60 irrigation zones from around the school, that whole back around the school, and every field is irrigated. It's not something you can just turn on and say, ‘yeah, I hope the water's gone.’ With veteran help and efficient zero-turn mowers, mowing should be a dream, but there was one unexpected nightmare that was not taken into account. “The landscape rock around the playground and the sidewalks is a nightmare. It gets kicked around. We had one incident this spring where we put a rock through one of the brand new windows. Oh, no. We shot it all the way right by the back door going into the gym. They got those huge 12 foot panels. It actually went out the opposite side of the chute, and the whole thing just crumbled.  It's that purple rock. It just bugs me if I see it kicked around. I could blow off the parking or the sidewalks and the playground area, and then the next hour, class comes out, and it's like, you know, kids are gonna kick it around.” Despite the perils of mowing around glass windows, Byram thoroughly enjoys the new complex. “It's kind of nice to start fresh, where everything's shiny and new. We can start with fresh turf, healthy turf. And the biggest thing is, with the irrigation, it's gonna be easier to keep it looking good.” 

“I've always had a passion for well maintained turf, especially on sports fields.” 

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