http://www.montana.edu/news/1131407951.html
Kyle Chenoweth puts the grid in Montana State's gridiron. He defines the yards in what is said to be a game of inches.
For the last three years, Chenoweth, a senior from Helena majoring in business, has painted the field for MSU football games.
"It's not a completely glamorous job," Chenoweth confesses. "At games, sometimes, I tell people about it. But, it's one of those jobs that no one cares about unless there's something wrong."
Walking the line for the Bobcats is time consuming, but not artistically challenging, he says.
"We mark the field with string and then paint over the string," Chenoweth said. Those elaborate designs at midfield and in the end zones? Chenoweth says that they are achieved with the use of stencils.
But Melanie Stocks, MSU's director of sports facilities, said there is more to painting a field than most people could imagine, and Chenoweth has been outstanding at the job.
"They paint in a certain order, which has to be coordinated with the mowing of the fields, weather and amount of use so it looks perfect at game time," she said. "It can take a long time. Many times they are out there in the dark, shining lights on the field to get it done in time."
It would seem that someone that has Chenoweth's attention to detail and work ethic would be an engineering student. But Chenoweth will graduate from MSU in December with a degree in marketing. His real passion, he says, is music. His roommate is Andrew Petroff, bass player for the local band, "The Clintons," and Chenoweth loves playing guitar, any kind of guitar.
"I'm not really an athletic person," Chenoweth says with a shrug. But he is a Bobcat by birth. The son of two MSU grads, Joni Chenoweth of Helena and Lynn Chenoweth of Boise, Idaho, Chenoweth followed his brother, Cory, to MSU. He also followed him to the MSU Athletic Department where Cory worked, earning an in-state fee waiver for playing recorded music at MSU football, basketball and volleyball games. When Cory graduated to take a job as a new student representative for MSU's Admissions and New Student Services, Kyle was, well, game, to take over his job.
"I was running out of money and my brother had some connections," the younger Chenoweth recalled.
Initially, Chenoweth picked and played music for MSU football and basketball games, which is not as easy as it sounds, he says.
"It's intense," said Chenoweth. "There's a lot going on and you need to be on your feet, knowing what songs to play when and knowing what will work in different situations. Besides, people have really strong opinions about what music is played."
Chenoweth said he gave up the job playing music at games and its full fee waiver this fall so he could sit in the stands and enjoy the games and tailgates, "and do all the fun things that a student is supposed to do."
But he stuck with painting the field, which he estimates requires about 20 hours a week of his time. He is joined by Matt Freze, a junior majoring in education from Deer Lodge, who will carry on when Chenoweth leaves after this semester. He said the job requires even more time in the summer, when the grass grows rapidly.
"This time of year it can be scary," he added. He recalled when he helped paint the field for the 'Cat-Griz game two years ago and it was so cold that "we painted the field for 20 minutes, and then went inside to get warm for 20 minutes," alternately until the job was finished.
Stocks said she will miss the Chenoweth field painting dynasty. Both brothers were solid workers who never missed a day of work or a scheduled event.
"They are just outstanding young men," Stocks said.
Chenoweth said not to count out future generations of Chenoweths, who are likely to follow the family tradition of migrating to MSU.
"And we will teach them to play music and paint before they come," he said.
Written by Carol Schmidt and posted 11/8/05.
