[bkbjones]

We have it pretty good up here in the Seattle area. Of course I knew that before I read the foregoing horror stories.

The only thing we share in common with the baseball folks is that we are members of Washington Officials Association. Baseball does its thing, softball does its thing. Folks who do NFHS fastpitch in King County are members of SMSUA, which is also affiliated with ASA (through the Seattle Tacoma Association), and the Metro UIC (currently Malcolm Boyles) is also the SMSUA UIC. (Note: We do have some NFHS folks who do not work ASA, and some ASA folks who do not work NFHS.)

We have separate clinics at the WIAA/WOA level, different coordinators at WIAA, etc. In the Seattle area, softball umpires are not relegated to the back burner – and we like it.