The American Sports Builders Association (ASBA), the national organization for design professionals, builders and suppliers of materials and equipment for athletic facilities, has announced the winners of its industry awards of recognition.
Presentation of awards took place at the close of ASBA’s Technical Meeting, which was held in Palm Desert, California.
The Distinguished Service Award, presented by the Association to recognize notable work benefitting the ASBA, was given to Duffy Mahoney, Chief of Sport Performance at USA Track & Field. Mahoney, who has announced his plans to retire from his full-time position with USA T&F this year, has been a fixture at Association meetings and a longtime contributor to publications and articles.
Mahoney’s career with USA Track & Field spans more than 30 years (he entered the organization as its national teams manager in 1989). Prior to that, he worked as a teacher and a track & field coach (as well as a coach of football and lacrosse) at Long Beach High School in New York. From there, he moved on to coaching the Saudi Arabia national track & field team and was the head coach of track & field at St. John’s University in New York.
Reflecting on his work, Mahoney noted that he is looking forward to retirement – in part so that he is able to travel to the bucket list of countries he has accumulated after a career spent visiting 54 others – and to restart his consulting business that will focus on athletic facility design. And in the meantime, he adds, USA Track & Field is in good hands.
“I have hired so many really good people who are well equipped and ready to roll,” he notes.
In honoring Mahoney, Paul Nagle, CTB, ASBA’s current Track Division President, called all those who had served as Track Division Presidents to the stage, noting that all had benefitted from Mahoney’s expertise during their time on the Board of Directors.
Also during the Technical Meeting, Racquet Sports Industry Magazine announced the winner of its Court Builder/Contractor of the Year Award, recognizing outstanding contributions in tennis facility construction. This year, the award was presented to Elite Sports Builders, LLC of Phoenix, Arizona, and to its president, Troy Rudolph, CTB, CFB, CTCB.
Elite Sports Builders has been operating for nearly three decades and in that time, says Rudolph, who is a strong advocate of continuing education for industry professionals, believing it ultimately results in a better product for the player.
“What I have found, and maybe this sounds self-promoting, but when really good contractors invest in education, it leads to outside-the-box thinking and getting solutions to problems,” he notes. “Those that don’t do that can really get left behind.”
Rudolph, who holds the designations of Certified Track Builder, Certified Field Builder and Certified Tennis Court Builder, has been active in ASBA as a member of the board of directors, as a speaker at meetings, and as a frequent contributor to the Association’s publication, Running Track Facilities: A Construction and Maintenance Manual.
Racquet Sports Industry Magazine, which partners with the ASBA to present relevant awards, is the largest business-to-business racquet sports publication in the world. The January 2023 issue of Racquet Sports Industry Magazine, which lists all the Champions of Tennis, is also available online at www.tennisindustrymag.com.
The ASBA is a non-profit association comprised of designers, builders and suppliers in sports facility construction. The ASBA sponsors informative meetings, publishes a quarterly magazine, produces a mobile app of court and field diagrams, publishes books and technical construction guidelines for athletic facilities, and keeps its members aware of the latest developments in the industry. It also offers voluntary certification programs in tennis court, running track and sports field construction as well as a certificate in pickleball court construction.