‘ He means the world to our ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT’
After 47 years, Calvert High School athletic custodian still loves his job
Robert Gross played baseball while he was in high school, but on at least one particular day five years ago, the Calvert High School athletic custodian showed he might have been a pretty good sprinter as well.
The now 74-year-old Gross was striping the baseball field and seemed to be oblivious of a fast approaching storm.
“We were all in the dugout and I said, ‘Robert, come in’ and he’s like, ‘Huh, what?’” said Calvert football head coach Rick Sneade. “And sure enough lightning strikes somewhere in the outfield. It shook him and he dropped everything and took off in our direction. I’ve never seen him run so fast.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Gross said, chuckling at the recollection. “Oh yeah, I will [listen to him] next time.”
While Gross managed to take a break during the storm, he doesn’t take many breaks at all while taking care of the school’s athletic facilities.
“He’s a trip in terms of how he’s always on the field,” said Jason Cranford, Calvert High’s activities director and the head coach of the varsity baseball team. “He makes me laugh because he’s always looking for a reason to get out on the field, whether it’s on the mower or the tractor. He’s always dying to be out there.”
Gross, who is now in his 47th year at Calvert High School, is beloved by teachers, coaches and students.
“He means as much to Calvert High School as our history does,” said Cranford, who added Gross is the school’s longest-standing employee. “He’s that permanent fixture that not only do our students and our staff look to, but also what our community looks for. He’s built relationships with many families and so many kids who are now parents who have kids here. He means the world to our athletic department.” “He’s a very selfless and compassionate person and he is like a pillar of the community,” Sneade said. “There isn’t any [Calvert] team that doesn’t understand the value of his service and leadership and recognize how long he’s been giving to this school. He puts everybody else
first.”
Gross said the secret to maintaining the football and baseball fields is constant mowing.
“Once it starts growing you have to keep it clipped every other day because it grows fast,” said Gross, who keeps the Bermuda grass field at a height of about an inch.
“It won’t grow if it’s too tall so you have to keep it cut short.”
“There’s never a question of whether the grass is going to be cut or if the field needs to be dragged or [aerated],” Cranford said. “We never have to worry about the fields because they’re always perfect.” And when games and marches wrap up, Gross is there like clockwork. “Robert always makes me laugh because he’s always there at the right time,” Cranford said. “When a ballgame’s ending or something is needed, he’s already thought about what needs to be done [before I have].” The St. Leonard resident said he was pondering retirement a few years back but decided to honor his granddaughter’s request. “I remember when she was in the sixth grade she said, ‘Pop-Pop, can you work there when I’m at Calvert?’” Gross said of his granddaughter, who is now a junior at Calvert High. “I promised her I’d do it, but I must love the job if I’ve been doing it for this long.”
A lifelong Calvert County resident, Gross attended the all-Black Brooks High School where he was a third baseman. He said he was good defensively but his hitting was “average.”
He and his wife of 30 years, Barbara, have three children, Eric, Michael and Melissa, as well as eight grandchildren.
Gross, who is a Washington Football Team fan, said his favorite work memories are when the Cavaliers win state championships.
In a biography written seven years ago, Gross said he was “happy to work here. I don’t want to stop. I’m happy to work because I do my job ... and when I do my job, I make some people happy.”
It’s a cold, windy and overcast but Gross has a busy day ahead of him so he climbs into his Ford F-250 pickup truck and weaves his way through the school parking lot toward his next task.