‘We must have hit a home run’: City of Kamloops recognized for its work at Norbrock Stadium

Nov 27, 2018 | 4:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s the crown jewel of the Tournament Capital of Canada, and now Norbrock Stadium is being recognized for its prestine condition. 

On Tuesday (Nov. 27), it was announced Norbrock won the Baseball Field of the Year in the parks and schools categories, defeating more than 100 other entries from around the world.  

“There are very strict criteria, and we must have hit a home run on each one,” says the city’s facilities manager Jeff Putnam. 

It was the city’s first entry into the Sports Turf Managers Association and Kamloops became the first Canadian city to capture an award. For a city that prides itself on being the Tournament Capital, the award validates all the good it’s doing to keep the fields prime. 

“We are not only saying we are Canada’s Tournament Capital but we’re proving it when we win awards like this,” says Putnam. “It also shows that we use really innovative technologies for doing the infield preparation, the fertilization programs. We have to deal with climate compared to some of our U.S. competitors that have a more stable climate.”

The city says a big reason for the award is the perfection of its fertilization and aeration processes among other techniques that make it work.

“We also have really good protocols in terms of what kind of climate conditions, how much water do they need, is it hot or is it early season, late season? We’ve got a whole, secret formula on how we do that that’s really Kamloops-specific.”

The plan is to enter into other categories in future years in the hopes of showing off its other fields and sporting facilities.