BISON ILLUSTRATED

The turf guy

Former Bison football player Brian Boll planted the seed that became a new program at NDSU

By JOHN HANSEN

AUGUST 2009

If you wanted to know about play calling, you might’ve asked the quarterback. If you wanted to know about game strategy, you might’ve asked the coach. But if you wanted to know what type of grass the Bison were playing on in a road game from 1996-99, you would’ve asked defensive end Brian Boll.

“Especially when we’d go on the road, the guys would razz me about what turf were playing on,” Boll said with a laugh in a recent phone interview. “I had a pretty good idea.”

While some of Boll’s teammates dreamed of NFL careers, Boll’s passion was turf. He enjoyed his chosen field so much that he even helped NDSU start a new program in the horticulture department.

Today, the 32-year-old Boll is the assistant superintendent at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn., one of the region’s elite golf courses. He lives with his wife, Megan, and their 1-year-old son, Jackson, in Elk River.

Playing his role

When he played for the Bison, the Woodbury High School graduate was a role player, not a star.

“I had more playing time as a freshman and sophomore,” said Boll, whose career was split between the Rocky Hagar and Bob Babich regimes. “My junior and senior year, I didn’t get as much playing time. There was a lot of talent on those teams. I tried helping out as much as I could — helping out on the scout squad, helping coach some of the younger guys who were getting playing time. … I kid around that everybody had their role on the team. I happened to be a GPA booster.”

Boll (whose GPA was 3.93) didn’t see a lot of game action, but it’s doubtful that any player spent more time on the practice field.

“I was taking care of the (practice) football fields at the time,” said NDSU horticulture professor Ron Smith, who remains good friends with his former student. “He volunteered a couple times. I didn’t want to abuse him because he’s such a nice young man.”

Planting the seed

It’s safe to say that Boll has repaid NDSU for his education. He wrote a report that led to the brand-new sports and urban turf grass management program in 2002.

“As part of my junior and senior year, I put together a paper where I interviewed students in horticulture and found that there was a significant interest in the field,” Boll said. “I got it to the department chairs and the higher-ups, saying this is a very good option for NDSU. At that time, there were decreasing jobs in the agriculture market. I thought it would be a benefit to NDSU to target the urban agriculture-type jobs.”

Smith was also a proponent of a turf program, but he hadn’t been able to get the decision-makers to overcome the stereotype that “any fool can grow grass.” He said Boll convinced President Joseph Chapman that NDSU needed this program.

“It’s all thanks to Brian Boll,” Smith said. “We put together a curriculum based on things Brian had put together. Now it’s one of the most successful programs in the college of agriculture. I credit Brian with that 100 percent. He was a self-starter, he organized it beautifully, and he knew who to show it to.”

That report showed Boll’s ability to work within an organization to get the job done. The trait has served him well at Interlachen, where he has worked since 2001. An equally important trait is that everybody seems to like him.

“He was a real easygoing guy, real liked by everybody,” said Boll’s former teammate Brent Vigen, who is now the offensive coordinator. “He was one of those guys everybody on the team got along with.”

Caring for the course

At Interlachen, Boll oversees the grounds crew. The golf course, which is celebrating its centennial this year, uses a blend of annual bluegrass and bentgrass for all its surfaces. Although annual bluegrass makes for a great putting surface, it also requires a lot of maintenance; this is where Boll’s expertise comes in.

“Annual bluegrass needs more water than other turf species to survive the summer,” he said. “It’d be one thing to throw all the water it needs at it, but playing conditions are reduced with more water, so it’s a fine line.”

Last year, Boll and his crew got to show off their work to a national TV audience when the U.S. Women’s Open was played at Interlachen. It was a busy time, but Boll enjoyed it thoroughly.

“All of a sudden all these bleachers are being set up,” he said. “And tents, grandstands, and roads on the golf course where there were never roads. … Our normal staff is right around 30 guys getting the course playable throughout the week. During the tournament, we had 50 volunteers help get the course set up. It was really neat seeing the whole community of golf course superintendents and vendors come together, just wanting to take part. … Being able to show off the course on a national scale was great.”

Football and golf may seem like polar opposites, but there are similarities, Boll said.

“I think probably the biggest thing is just being part of a team. On the ground staff we take a team mentality. It takes every one of our staff of 30 to keep the course in as good of shape as possible. Having everyone committed — it really shows on the golf course.”

Boll didn’t become an NFL player, but he’s not complaining about his day job. As part of his duties, he golfs at Interlachen to see how the course is playing; he also plays other courses for the sake of comparison.

Boll said Interlachen won’t have to worry about losing him to the PGA Tour anytime soon.

“My handicap is not fit to be published right now,” he said with a laugh.