This week's Someone 2 Know grew up here in Nevada, playing and watching sports of all kinds. Now, after going away to college and returning for work; Leah Withrow gets up close and personal with the Reno Aces baseball field every day, as the head groundskeeper.
She's one of very few women in the US to hold this position.
We met up with her on the snow-covered, Greater Nevada Field
She can handle heavy equipment, snow, dirt – and Withrow can handle heavy and demanding days;
"On a game day we come in around 9:00 AM, start mowing, and get the patterns poppin’...”, then, dozens of other things from raking dirt to watering the grass.
Everything else you see on the field are all precisely planned and executed, through batting practices and beyond, up until game time;
"You see us chalking the lines and getting the mounds just right, the plate just right…and then it's play ball!”
After the game, it's time to clean it up - often late into the night. Despite the long hours, Leah says her office is better than anybody else's;
"I get butterflies, I'm still so excited to get out of bed and go the field, because this is where I'm supposed to be"
So how did the Nevada native, Douglas-High graduate, get her dream job at just 25 years of age?
She earned it.
"(I) was the intern, was a season assistant here, was a full time assistant here and now I'm the head groundskeeper here"
This is Withrow's fifth season at Greater Nevada Field, and everything on the grounds - from below the ground - on up, is her responsibility.
"There's a real science behind how to make a field pop and look amazing and playable and safe"
Four years of real science studies to be precise, and a university degree in Turf Management
Yep, that’s a thing.
Turns out, it's a thing that not too many women – do;
"There is one other woman in minor league baseball and myself and then I am the only female head groundskeeper in Triple A baseball, and the only, first, female for the Aces"
Withrow says the significance of that didn't hit her right away, and now wants little girls and young women to know, it is an option.
"Any position is open to anybody and just because you've traditionally seen a male do this job, doesn't mean you can't"
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Leah says she is excited to see the Reno Aces play a full season this year after having to cancel 2020's games because of the pandemic. The team hopes to release a schedule within the next couple of months.
Link to Reno Aces website, here -
