The crowd’s cheers echo through the LaVell Edwards Stadium as BYU defensive freshman Tommy Prassas scooped up the ball at the 30-yard line and ran into the endzone, giving the Cougars their first lead in the BYU vs Kansas State game at 10–6. The stadium radiates with an electric energy as the game continues. Hearts race while fans from both sides chant their team’s fight song. This memorable play is one of many that fans have seen at the BYU stadium during football games. But while most people’s eyes are glued to the players, Katie Anselmi (MS ’25, PWS) focuses her attention on another vital part of the game: the turf. Many people don’t realize how the condition of the field can impact play, but Anselmi knows that even minor changes can make or break a game.
Passionate about both football and plant sciences, Anselmi jumped at the chance to combine the two while conducting research on the field with Dr. Neil Hansen and Dr. Bryan Hopkins. In her study, Anselmi utilizes drone imagery and agricultural tools to examine the field and collect data that is used to benefit the health and wellness of the football players and improve their game performance. Leading a team of undergraduate researchers, she coordinates with the sports field manager, PWS faculty, and BYU Grounds and Maintenance to analyze the turf management of the football field.
The stadium field was meticulously designed by Hopkins and is comprised of three specialized layers: Kentucky bluegrass on the top, precise-sized sand particles in the middle, and a specific type of gravel on the bottom. The field is intentionally designed to keep water in the sand layer, draining to the gravel when the sand becomes oversaturated. Knowing how each layer responds to water intake is critical in understanding how the field will handle various water conditions. Anselmi and her team use state-of-the-art equipment to record the water content and hardness of the field before and after every game to determine the correlation between the water content and the hardness of the field.
As a graduate fellow with the METER Group, an environmental monitoring company, Anselmi has access to their agricultural tools for her research. “METER and BYU are cutting edge in deciding to put the same sensors used on corn fields and alfalfa fields on a stadium,” Anselmi explains. She and her team tested the tool’s ability to evaluate the field’s water saturation and dew formation. Understanding the field’s conditions allows the research team to provide coaches with valuable insights that guide decisions, including which cleats the athletes should wear to keep them safe and help them succeed during their games.
METER and BYU are cutting edge in deciding to put the same sensors used on corn fields and alfalfa fields on a stadium.
When the field is too hard, a player’s cleats won’t pivot, impacting the athlete’s joints and potentially leading to injury. Conversely, when the field is too soft, or over-watered, a player can’t get the traction he needs. Using the data that Anselmi and her team gather, Dustin Pixton, the field manager, determines how divots form and when to aerate, top dress, or dry out the field to create the best conditions for game night.
Anselmi highlights Pixton’s critical work: “Dustin doesn’t deal with just playable; he deals with optimal. To say that Dustin manages every inch is not an overstatement.” While other universities have a variety of specialized coaches, BYU is the only one to have its own turf coaches.
Planting Seeds of Faith in Research
Hopkins and Hansen have also been spiritual mentors to Anselmi during her time at BYU. Once, when several of Anselmi’s projects weren’t going as she had hoped, Hansen suggested that they pray.
“Never in my life did I think about praying about a scientific problem that I was having with my research,” Anselmi shares. “But in reality, the Lord cares about our research because He cares about us.”
Describing this experience, Anselmi references one of Hopkins’s lectures, in which he said that “all scientific achievement and scientific findings are just revelations” and that “God knows everything, and He allows parts of His creation to be revealed to us as we seek diligently.”
As Anselmi has diligently sought to learn more about the science that goes into managing the football field, she has come to feel BYU’s unique spirit, and she shares her enthusiasm for her research with the people she works with.
All scientific achievement and scientific findings are just revelations.
Hansen is grateful for Anselmi’s energy, leadership, and progress. “I tell my students all the time that the science is the second product; the first product is the student,” he says. “There’s just been a ton of learning, growth, and network connections that Katie has made. So, for me, the best product is that she moves on to the next step in her career, and I have no question that that’ll happen.”
Now, as she helps pioneer a new level of sports field research, Anselmi hopes to continue working with environmental technology and using her knowledge to help others.