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Originally Posted by timharris
Good Day All
I have used this forum quite often and you guys are really knowledgable umpires. I will be the Umpire in Chief for this upcoming Memorial Day weekend which includes 9 fields, it is a AAU State Tournament for 9-12 year olds here in Virginia. I have been given the duty of meeting with all the coaches this upcoming Friday night, what are some of things I should cover? In the past I have covered things such as (1) sportmanship and safety supercedes everything on the fields. (2) Umpires will only acknowledge head coaches (meaning coach that was at the pre-game meeting) if their is a question about any play or rule interpertation during the game. (3)The on deck batter must stay on his dugout side while on deck. What are some other things that I might want too add, so my weekend can be a little smoother.
Thanks for all the info.
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If I were you I'd be very practical.
IMO when coaches hear anything about sportsmanship all they hear is blah blah blah blah blah. They've all heard it before and no one considers themselves unsportsmanlike so they tune it out.
So I would tell them:
"If you argue, question, complain or comment on balls and strikes you are at risk of being tossed. If you argue, question, complain or comment on any judgement call you are at risk of being tossed. Your assistant coaches have no standing at all with the umpires so they are at risk of being tossed when they show up(a little toungue in cheek, but a comment along that line would be good) Same goes for your players. As UIC I will stand behind the umpires 100% in these situations."
While you have their attention you might want to throw in a 5 minute rules seminar and disspell some of the common baseball myths that most frequently cause problems between uninformed coaches and umpires ie hands are part of the bat and tie goes to the runner etc etc.
It's not often that 9-12 yr old coaches have an umpire speak to them so take advantage of the opportunity to say something meaningful.
After all the 9-12 yr old coaches are the travel coaches of tomorrow.