Georgia Tech Student Helps Perfect the Pitch at the World Cup

Before fans fill the stadiums and World Cup moments are made on match days, grounds crews are hard at work inside the 16 stadiums hosting the global tournament, preparing the pitch that will serve as the canvas for the art that is the beautiful game.  

Aiden Holland is a third-year Georgia Tech undergraduate and Georgia Tech Athletics Grounds Crew student assistant. His match days begin up to nine hours before kickoff as one of the crew members selected by FIFA to maintain the natural-grass surface at AT&T Stadium (temporarily renamed Dallas Stadium).  

After meticulously painting the end lines and stringing the goals, Holland tests the playing surface's moisture level and measures its firmness to ensure the ball will bounce and the players will get the same energy return as on any other World Cup pitch across North America.  

Dallas hosts its ninth and final match on Tuesday, July 14, and Holland has been in attendance for each one. But when Argentina’s Lionel Messi became the all-time leading goal scorer in World Cup history, or when Mikel Merino’s extra-time goal gave Spain a dramatic win over Portugal, he was watching the grass under their feet.  

“To see your work play out in front of you on a global stage is exciting,” he said. “As someone who works on fields, I watch through the lens of seeing how the field reacts to the players on it. At no point in a match do you want a moment that makes you think the pitch caused a player to slip or a ball to take a bad bounce. You have the highest-level athletes in the world out there, and the last thing they need to worry about is whether the playing surface will be safe and reliable enough for them to play at the highest possible level.”  

Holland is one of three Yellow Jackets on the Dallas crew, joined by Assistant Athletics Director Chris May and Noonan Golf Facility groundskeeper Cody Brady. The crew of eight expands to 12 on match days to get the pitch ready for action, and days between matches consist of constant maintenance to keep it in pristine condition. 

A double major in international affairs and business, Holland has been around field maintenance his entire life. His father, Eric, is the former lead groundskeeper at Tech and is now the owner of Precision Turf. For the past five summers, Holland has worked for the family business, installing pitches for international soccer matches in Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, and more, including the 2024 Copa América tournament in Dallas.  

Holland’s interest in soccer took him around the world in 2025 in a study abroad program with Regents' Entrepreneur and Full Professor Kirk Bowman, examining the sport’s intersection with geopolitics in Argentina and Uruguay. The Buford, Georgia, native conducted research to determine how pitch maintenance affected team performance, testing nine fields in Argentina’s professional league, Liga Profesional de Fútbol.  

Through his research and hands-on experience at the World Cup, Holland believes the skills and precision learned on the job will stay with him, regardless of his career path.  

“It's instilling a work ethic that asks you to strive toward perfection,” he said. It takes a lot of work to make sure everything's perfected at all times, and that’s somethingI’ll take with me into my work in the classroom, my work with the Athletics Grounds Crew, and my roles within my student organizations. The World Cup is a global circus of sorts, and it provides this incredible opportunity to work with people from around the world, share experiences, and learn what type of collaboration it takes to create this type of event.” 

At the conclusion of the World Cup, Holland will prepare for a new academic year and return to helping maintain the Institute’s athletic facilities — primarily Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium and Shirley Clements Mewborn Field.