Beacon BallieldDimensionsGuide-2024-WEB - Flipbook - Page 2
INTRODUCTION
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T H E N E W 4 T H E D I T I O N O F T H E E S S E N T I A L B A L L F I E L D G U I D E P R O D U C E D B Y B E A C O N AT H L E T I C S S I N C E 2 0 0 7
About the Author
DESIGN & DIMENSIONS
Paul Zwaska, DuraEdge. Paul has spent over 40 years in the sports turf industry.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Soil Science with a specialty in Turf and Grounds
Management from the University of Wisconsin. He went to work with the Baltimore Orioles
right out of college and worked his way up to Head Groundskeeper. Paul’s Major League Baseball
career spanned over 15 years before moving on to Beacon Athletics where he spent 21 years
establishing their groundskeeping education programs and working with their product engineers to
design new and improved tools for the ballfield industry. While at Beacon, Paul also spent 17 years on the
board of a local Little League organization overseeing maintenance, renovations and crew mentoring at their facility.
Through that experience he gained considerable knowledge of the inner workings of youth sports associations. During
his Beacon tenure, Paul authored and published the initial “Ballfield Dimension Guide” in 2007 and has added more and
more content with each periodic update of this unique, all-encompassing “ballfield Bible”. Paul also authored Beacon’s
Groundskeeper University online training program in 2012, the only online training venue for grounds crews. Paul’s education
in soil science and Major League Baseball experience also brought him together with DuraEdge founder Grant McKnight in
2005 as Grant set out to develop the DuraEdge product line. Together they worked on the development of products and
the educational content for DuraEdge. In 2022, Paul moved over to DuraEdge full time.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
Benji Brye, Beacon Athletics. Benji has spent the last 23 years at Beacon
Athletics anchoring the Project Services Group that designs, supplies and
manages projects involving backstop netting, barrier netting, batting cages,
batter’s eyes, padding and windscreen systems.
Luke Yoder, DuraEdge. Luke has been a member of the sports turf industry for
over two decades. After graduating from Clemson University with a Bachelor
Ross Clites, 4Most Sport Group. Ross serves as president of 4Most Sport
Group, an outdoor athletic facility design consultant firm. He holds Masters of
Architecture and Business Administration from Kent State. He pitched
for three seasons while attending Kent State. Ross continued his work in baseball
by coaching pitchers at D-III Washington University in St. Louis. He has coached
high school baseball, the U17 St. Louis Gamers, and evaluated baseball talent for
the USA Baseball U18 National Team Identification Series (NTIS).
of Science in Turf Science, Luke established a career in Minor League and
Major League Baseball. He served as head groundskeeper first with the Iowa
Cubs, and then with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres. Luke has
also consulted on ballfields in Korea, Sweden and the Dominican Republic.
Upon leaving Major League Baseball, Luke served as a sports field specialist
for Ewing Irrigation before joining DuraEdge in 2018.
Evan Mascitti, Biocore LLC. Evan has spent over 10 years in the sports field
industry. He has worked as a field manager at Little League, minor league,
and MLB league facilities, most recently with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2023
he earned a PhD in soil science from Penn State, with his dissertation titled
“Performance of baseball infield soils using novel laboratory tests.” Evan
currently works as a senior engineer at Biocore LLC, where he conducts
research related to sports field safety.
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