Former pro footballer Josh Lennie now serves as superintendent at Edgewood Golf Course in Southwick, Mass. Photo by Scott Ramsay, CGCS
Like many an English lad, Josh Lennie grew up dreaming of one day playing in the FIFA World Cup.
Thanks to a 10-year professional football/soccer career, he came closer than most to achieving that dream, but it wasn’t until 15 years after hanging up his cleats that he finally stood on a World Cup pitch.
“I was like a little schoolgirl,” says Lennie, superintendent at Edgewood Golf Course in Southwick, Mass., and a four-year association member. “I had goosebumps. From a personal perspective, to be at a World Cup, for someone who loves the game as much as I do … it was incredible.”
Lennie didn’t just stand on the Boston Stadium pitch; he worked on it as part of the volunteer crew that tended the field and attendant practice facilities when this past summer the World Cup visited Boston, one of 16 host cities in the United States, Mexico and Canada for the every-four-year sporting spectacle.
“It was hard to be away from my family for nine days,” Lennie says, “but I turned 40 this year. This was like my 40th birthday gift to myself.”
A native Brit, Lennie played goalkeeper for the Brentford youth system and made his professional soccer debut at 16. “I was on the youth team, and there was an injury crisis at the club. I was thrown in the deep end,” he says.
He toiled 10 years as a pro before retiring at 25, but that experience helped him land a job (and work visa) as a coach at NCAA Div. I Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. He also coached at Connecticut Football Club.
Then he met his now-wife, Janelle, a native Bostonian who was finishing up her doctorate in biomedical engineering. “She said, ‘Why don’t you try a new career?’” Josh Lennie recalls.
He ended up taking a job with Richie Kremer, CGCS, as second assistant superintendent at Hop Meadow Country Club in Simsbury, Conn., and worked his way up to assistant superintendent. He moved on to Rockledge Golf Club in West Hartford, Conn., where he worked a year under Tim Nadeau, the GCSAA Class A superintendent there, before he was approached about taking the superintendent job at Edgewood GC, a nine-hole public course less than a mile from the Connecticut border. He took the job in October 2024.
“When I retired, I was kind of in limbo,” says Lennie, who studied turfgrass management at UMass. “All I had known was being a professional footballer. Did I think this would happen, that I would become a superintendent? Absolutely not. To tell you the truth, I thought it was just my retirement job.
“I think it stems from my love of the sport itself and turf in general. I played on some of the best natural pitches you can play on in Europe. I used to help out the grounds crew at Quinnipiac, and I think that piqued my interest a little bit.”
Lennie (back row, top left) and the crew — and mascots — of the FIFA World Cup site at Boston Stadium. Photo courtesy of Josh Lennie
Lennie has settled in at Edgewood, where he says he “knows enough to be where I’m at, at a mom-and-pop golf course.”
“My work ethic is what sets me apart,” he says. “My crew is only five people, including myself. I’m the spray tech, the agronomist. I wear a lot of hats. But I think my outlook is very different than a lot of people in this industry. I’m a dad first and a superintendent second. I don’t miss anything for my kids. I work 85 hours a week, but I also make sure I don’t miss my daughter’s dance recital.”
Josh and Janelle are parents to 5-year-old Jude and 4-year-old Lilah.
“They’re both COVID babies,” Josh says with a laugh. “There wasn’t much else to do during COVID. They’re great kids. They take after their mom. They will probably grow up and cure cancer. Jude can drive a skid steer already at 5.”
Josh tore himself away long enough to volunteer for the World Cup. He said more than 200 folks volunteered to be part of the crew — so many, they broke the team into crews for each of three weeks. Josh worked the first week.
“I’m part of a small crew at the golf course, so it wasn’t ideal,” he says. “But I talked to ownership, and they said it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it would be a mistake not to do it.”
The crew “did everything” on the pitch at Boston Stadium (in its non-World Cup livery, it’s known as Gillette Stadium, the artificial-turfed home of the New England Patriots), as well as six associated playing fields. “Mowing it, stringing it, painting, putting the goals out — it was a lot of work, making sure everything was in top shape.”
One of the perks was that Lennie was able to attend three games. “It was a lot better than paying $5,000 per ticket,” he says. “We stood right behind the goal. We were on the field at halftime and before the game. It didn’t really sink in until you’re there in front of 65,000 people, and they’re singing. I’m usually in front of four people and a dog on the golf course.
“Being from England, I think everyone was skeptical of the quality of fields and how they’d make it work. Honestly, what they did to get that place that way was phenomenal. If I wasn’t passionate about grass before, that made it even more so.”
Andrew Hartsock is a member of GCM staff.