Joe Collins, a nationally respected and regionally recognized field and turf manager, begins his 13th season at Samford.

He maintains and landscapes the grounds for every outdoor sports team on campus. In February of 2007, Collins earned the designation of Certified Sports Turf Manager from the Sports Turf Managers Association

A native of Roswell, Ga., Collins began his tenure at Samford in 1995 and has worked to give the Bulldogs the best playing surfaces in the Ohio Valley Conference.

In 2002, Samford's softball facility won the nation's Sports Turf Managers Association [STMA] Softball Field of the Year award. The STMA grades playing fields for baseball, softball, football and soccer, and gives an annual award for each sport based on the field's playability, appearance, organization of the maintenance program, uses of the facility that impact playing surface and innovative solutions to playing-surface problems.

Collins is a 1993 graduate of Clemson University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in horticulture. He and his wife, Jennifer, have two daughters, Ella Marquis, 5, and Carys Anne, 1.