Take a seed, insert it into the ground, fertilize it, and water it. But instead of sunshine, you substitute persistence, sweat, and drive.
Of course, it’s a little more involved than that. But Zach Longenecker knows how to make things grow, whether it’s sod or a career.
“I think everybody thinks they can do it,” said Longenecker, more about the grass than the work. “When the field looks good, you won’t hear about it. When there’s something wrong, that’s when you hear about it.”
In that sense, Longenecker, a 2009 graduate of Annville-Cleona High School, is an unsung hero, a man behind the scenes. As the head groundskeeper of Allegiant Stadium and an employee of the Las Vegas Raiders, it is Longenecker’s responsibility not only to have fields ready for play and practice – no matter what the game or event – but also to put the franchise’s best foot forward through its facilities.
“In a way, you’re in charge of players’ safety,” said Longenecker. “It’s a lot of maintaining things the best you can. You’re still growing grass, but you’re keeping it perfect as much as you can. The stadium has to be game-ready all the time.
“I spend more time with my fields than I do with my wife. It’s Monday through Sunday, it’s Groundhog’s Day every day and you’re here all the time. When you’re working 60 to 80 hours a week, you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t love it.”
Or have an outstanding work ethic.
Backed by five full-timers and six part-timers, Longenecker and his crew manicure and maintain up to six Raider fields and practice facilities in addition to Allegiant Stadium, where Las Vegas plays about 10 home games each season.
Last February, Allegiant Stadium hosted Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
“I look at it like every five or six games, you have to resod it (Allegiant Stadium),” said Longenecker, who graduated from Penn State University in 2013 with a degree in turf science. “They’re big boys out there, and they get into it. The other challenge we have is growing fields outdoors (in the Nevada heat) and then putting them inside. The grass actually goes into shock. It just slowly dies when we put it inside.”
“I’d say my favorite part of the job is my crew, my guys,” added Longenecker. “You have to hire well. Two of my assistants could be my father. I may be younger, but you have to be able to see talent, too. You can’t be intimidated by people older than you or who have their own ideas. I have a great crew. They know what I want, and they know what we’re trying to achieve. I guess I’m doing something right.”
As a 34-year-old head groundskeeper in the NFL, Longenecker resides at the summit of his industry. He answers to the Raiders’ general manager. But here’s the rub: He’s been in his position as top guy for 12 years.
Longenecker went to Las Vegas as an assistant groundskeeper when he was 22 and became the head man a year later. At the time, he was one of the youngest head groundskeepers in the storied history of the NFL.
“I’m at the top of my profession,” he said. “Sometimes people will ask me, ‘You got to Mount Everest so young, how do you stay on top?’ The reason is I’m never satisfied. I guess it’s being a perfectionist. It’s not a bad thing; it’s a good thing.”
“Yeah, I’ve achieved a lot of success,” he added. “But let’s face it, the closer you are to the top, the closer you are to being out the door. I busted my you-know-what to get here. Now I’ve got to keep grinding to stay here. I’m a farm boy: I’ll outwork anybody. But I’ve also been blessed. I’ve been very lucky.”
Sure, Longenecker grew up around farms, cloned his father’s work ethic, got the right education, and enjoyed all the relevant internship-type experiences, including ones with Penn State, the Reading Phillies, and the Minnesota Vikings. But it may have been a fateful day during his junior year at Annville-Cleona High School that sent him down this path.
“I had a guidance counselor at Annville-Cleona, and he asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” said Longenecker. “I told him I wanted to be the general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. He told me, ‘You’re never going to do it. Find another track instead.’ I thought that if I can’t be the GM for the Phillies, I’ll grow the grass. Growing up, I liked sports, so when the counselor said I was never going to be the GM of the Phillies, I reverted back to farming and sports.”
You can take the boy out of the country. But you can’t take the country out of the boy.
“Growing up, we always had pigs and sheep and horses and cows,” said Longenecker. “I worked at a dairy farm, and I learned to pick corn, bail hay, and feed the cows. My mom was a school teacher, and my dad had his own business, and he was always working. I wanted to get to the top, and I didn’t care what avenue it was. I got my degree, it was some luck and a lot of hard work.”
“When I got the job as first assistant groundskeeper with the Raiders, I didn’t know my boss was going to leave,” he concluded. “When I got the job, I wasn’t ready. I was thrown into the fire, and I learned how to be successful. You shouldn’t worry about failing, because you’re going to fail. Just learn from your failures.”
And perhaps that is the true secret to success.
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