COMMERCE CITY, CO -- The turf crew rarely gets the same recognition as the team playing on the field, but this year the Sports Turf Managers Association professional soccer "Field of the Year Award" goes to the guys who did the literal dirty work at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Colorado Rapids play on this immaculate soccer pitch, one of the many fields making up a huge soccer complex near Denver.

The award was given not just for maintenance of the fields on which the Colorado Rapids play at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, but for care provided to the 24 fields that surround the stadium -- this year a Herculean effort that revived the lawn following the inaugural Mile High Music Festival.

Hosting a five-stage music festival for more than 100,000 attendees on the outer fields of the world's largest soccer complex was a feat in itself, but restoring the turf to a nearly pristine playing quality was nothing short of astounding. The Mile High Music Festival is the only one of its kind in the U.S. to be held on sports turf. The crowds of more than 50,000 per day who saw the Dave Matthews Band, Tom Petty and John Mayer, trampled the sod under temperatures that hit 100.

The preparation for a major youth soccer tournament to be held in just three weeks started immediately. A three-day cleanup of the entire site was necessary before the crew was even able to get aid to the 2.2 million square feet of ailing grass.

"The concert was over Sunday night, but it wasn't until 4:15 Wednesday afternoon that everything was finally off of the fields," DSG Park turf manager Bret Baird said. "And that was just the concert equipment - staging, generators, tents and other equipment."

Baird and his crew of 12 people used backpack blowers, bare hands and a 6-foot magnet to harvest the remaining trash and debris from the 24 fields.

"We picked up nuts, bolts, bottle caps, batteries, several hundred bobby pins, irrigation flags, guitar strings, cotter pins, little, random pieces of metal - all kinds of stuff," recalled Baird.

Over the next week, the crew watered heavily and aerated the fields before finally applying over 2,600 lbs. of new seed over the complex. "Then we drug the field with a drag mat so the seed would fall into the holes and the aerating cores would break up. Next, we top dressed the fields with USGA sand. We fertilized the fields and then started 'seed programs' with our irrigation systems," Baird explained.

"Bret was able to start restoration on the Thursday following the event (July 24) and just two weeks later, on Thursday, August 7, the Rush tournament began. The complex was as green as could be," said Allison Hamilton, senior director, venue operations at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

"These guys are the absolute best," Hamilton continued. "I would walk in to their shop during the festival and see pairs of bare feet sticking out of cubes under blankets! Instead of going home, these guys would actually just sleep here onsite, that's how dedicated they were to this restoration and their jobs."

The Field of the Year Award was special recognition for the effort. "The Field of the Year Award validates the intense dedication of our members," says Kim Heck, CEO of the Sports Turf Managers Association, the sponsoring organization of the award. "Each year STMA awards no more than 13 Fields of the Year, so a very small percentage of our members are winners. Bret Baird and his crew are very deserving of this prestigious award for Dick's Sporting Goods Park," says Heck.