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I was at the South Bend School, too. I also expected a little more. I have been umpiring for 5 years, I only do 1 night a week, and I only do slow pitch. I usually do low level women's games or co-ed stuff. I rarely do tournaments. With that said, I also felt that the NUS was very Rookie oriented. Enough new ups were there that they should have pulled them out into their own group. It may have made for a much better conference. It also may have redistributed group sizes down to something more managable for advanced issues. There were too many students, and not enough instructors.
I was expecting the NUS to be different from the state school I attended a few years ago, but it was almost identical. There are a lot of small things that would have made a big difference in my opinion of the school.
However, I also agree that big part of the whole weekend is meeting fellow umpires and talking with each other and learning from each other. I would have liked to get more from the "academic" part of the conference. What I took from the "social" portion of the conference is stuff that money just can't buy.
I almost didn't go to sunday's sessions, and it wasn't because I had too much fun Saturday night either. I'm glad I toughed it out and went. My group was with Bernie on Sunday, and that made my conference, literally. His session was the only one that made me think and focus. I'm glad I didn't miss that (even with all of the "dead balls" and over-hand outs).
Just my 2 cents (that's all I had left after losing my winings in Texas Hold-em).
Diana from Kokomo
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