The Green Team: Behind the Scenes of a Championship-Worthy Campus
Ahead of Spring Sports Night on Tuesday, April 21, get to know the staff who care for University School of Nashville's 81-acre River Campus.
By Juanita I.C. Traughber, Director of Marketing & Communications
Spanning 81 acres in North Nashville, the River Campus is more than a collection of athletic facilities — it is a testament to dedication and care. Home to a dozen practice and playing fields, an eight-lane track, eight tennis courts, baseball and softball fields, two restroom and storage facilities, two pavilions, a maintenance shop, wetlands for science research and even a solar power array, this peninsula is a vital extension of University School of Nashville that thrives under the watchful eyes of a four-person maintenance team — Dillon Anderson, John Wesley Baker, Ty Johnson, and Bret Mash. Together, they keep the River Campus beautiful and ready for competition, ensuring student-athletes have a place to train, compete, and grow while budding scientists and outdoor enthusiasts have a place for marine biology lessons and nature journeys.
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Spanning 81 acres in North Nashville, the River Campus is more than a collection of athletic facilities — it is a testament to dedication and care. Home to a dozen practice and playing fields, an eight-lane track, eight tennis courts, baseball and softball fields, two restroom and storage facilities, two pavilions, a maintenance shop, wetlands for science research and even a solar power array, this peninsula is a vital extension of University School of Nashville that thrives under the watchful eyes of a four-person maintenance team — Dillon Anderson, John Wesley Baker, Ty Johnson, and Bret Mash. Together, they keep the River Campus beautiful and ready for competition, ensuring student-athletes have a place to train, compete, and grow while budding scientists and outdoor enthusiasts have a place for marine biology lessons and nature journeys.
The plot of land originally belonging to the S’atsoyaha (Yuchi) Indigenous people was purchased by USN in 1999 and was deemed the USN’s River Campus for home soccer games. Mash’s tenure on the fields he’s come to adore began 22 years ago, mowing grass as he balanced several jobs and studying horticulture, chemistry, and soil science at Austin Peay State University. He became River Campus Director in 2013, and — as the land’s functionality has evolved to sustain the school’s baseball, softball, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, and track and field programs — Mash has expanded the crew to five men when fully staffed. Each expresses a willingness to help with any task.
“It’s more of an all-hands-on-deck approach out here. You can come out here on any day, and if you don't know the place, then you will not know who's in charge,” Mash said. “I'm going to wear a T-shirt and blue jeans to work every day, and you’re going to find me out there with a weed eater.”
On a typical day, Johnson arrives first, sometimes beating the sun to work, around 6 a.m. Two men mow the fields while two others paint fresh lines on sports fields.
“There are 24 acres of sports turf, and you've got to cut it twice. So when you cut it in the morning, you're going to have wet grass and clippings. Then it's about lunch time,” Mash said. “Then you go back out, and the sun's been out, it's dried those clippings up, and then the field will clean up on second pass. We may have to take the blower out there and blow clippings off.”
It takes three men six hours to weed-eat the entire facility, walking the nooks and crannies between every fence. Each field gets a minimum of six passes by a mower each week.
They open and clean bathrooms in time for summer campers, student-athletes, and spectators. They trim trees. They fertilize on Fridays. Much of their work is dependent on the heavens above. When rainfall dampens mows, practices, and games, they wait for the sun to dry out the fields.
“Spring is a busy time of the year for sports, but so is fall. Summer is because Summer Camps are out here. But this place, I mean, it's 11 and a half months of work to keep this place, and that's not counting maintenance of those scoreboards,” Mash said, gesturing toward the baseball scoreboard he welded into place.
Adding to their workload, the crew also handles the maintenance and repair of buses, including the recent retrofitting of an older bus to transport the mountain biking team’s student-athletes, coaches, and two-wheelers. In winter months, they spend more time indoors on shop maintenance and repairing equipment. They are responsible for the maintenance of a vintage, three-axle dump truck that requires a commercial driver's license and stick shift to operate as well as a tractor, a backhoe, and two riding lawn mowers. That meant a recent steamy morning of hydraulic fluid-stained clothes on Mash as he worked on a riding lawn mower. At times, they drive to Birmingham or Decatur, Alabama to purchase warning track mix for the baseball and softball fields.
These groundskeepers have known each other for years, with friendships dating back to childhood, which contributes to their strong camaraderie. Mash, also an ordained minister, officiated the wedding of Anderson and his wife. Their families play in recreational sports leagues together. And while they spread across acres much of the day to toil, they gather to spend lunch in communion. The team dynamics, they emphasize, are the most enjoyable part of caring for the River Campus.
“We all click as one. We're all friends here. We're not just coworkers,” Anderson said. “We'll know we'll have a big job to do, and we'll all tackle it at the same time with the same mindset and get it done.”
And at times, they are dependent on each other to manage wildlife interactions. Johnson is typically on snake removal. Scaring raccoons from trash cans, sighting armadillos crossing, and chasing opossums from the shop are routine.
“In the wetlands, we keep the boardwalks clean. We replace boards and try to keep the decks up as best we can,” Johnson said. “We'll spend the day back here clearing out the beaver dams, and the next day it could look like we barely touched it. The beavers are pretty efficient.”
And on top of their responsibilities at the River Campus, the crew also is responsible for salting and removing snow from parking lots at the Edgehill Campus in the winter, seeding and mowing the Back Field year-round, and assisting Operations staff with setting up for Commencement each May. Read the entire article in 2000 Edgehill, the magazine of Peabody Demonstration School and University School of Nashville.
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Contact
Edgehill Campus
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
USN Mission:
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.