Fairfield groundskeeper Dakota Steele tops national poll
Dec. 8—BENTON — Winners against Jimtown in the first round of the IHSAA Class 3A football sectional Oct. 20, the Fairfield high school football team certainly has to thank groundskeeper Dakota Steele for winning in style.
That's because Steele, a former groundskeeper for the Fort Wayne Tincaps and in his first year at Fairfield Community Schools, is now a champion himself.
Announced in a press release sent to The Goshen News Thursday, Steele was named the winner of a national poll consisting of 20 amateur and professional submissions sent to the Sports Field Managers Association. Steele won the 2023 Mowing Patterns Contest with his "V pattern."
The submission of Steele's showed the High School's football field before the October 20th contest against Jimtown. Steele's mowing design was completed by himself.
According to the release, Steele found out last week and was left "speechless".
"I was really excited to see that we did win," Steele said in the release. "Some of the ballparks and other grounds that were on the voting slate, they're some of the top ballparks on there."
"[There were] some quality grounds crews and there's a lot of detailed work that goes into those fields," Steele continued. "I'm trying to do a similar thing here at Fairfield and to match up with some of those crews on the poll, that is exciting to see mine was chosen."
Steele, a 2018 graduate of Manchester University, has been the District Groundskeeper since June of 2023.
As to what awaits the victory, Steele will now travel down to Daytona Beach, Fla for the 35th SFMA Conference and Exhibition. That event will run from Jan. 22-25.
"I'm going to learn from the industry's best, which is really priceless," Steele added in the release. "There's so much I would love to learn about, and the people there are a lot more experienced than I am. I want to continue to learn and bring some of that back to Fairfield and make our fields and grounds look better than they already do."
"The outreach was a lot more than I expected it to be and I'm thankful the community came together to make this be able to happen."
Reach Matt Lucas at 574-533-2151, ext. 240325, or at matt.lucas@goshennews.com.
