Well, here we go..... the old fart is going to give his opinion to all this!
First of all, Tuss is in a neighboring HS board to mine. His HS board is as large as mine and has about as many old timers as mine does. Add to the fact that the HS board that Tuss belongs to deals with the more "affluent" areas of CT and the "customers" in this area are royal pains. I also know several of the members of Tuss' HS board and they are not the easiest to get along with.
That said, one of the hardest things that we have to deal with up here is exactly what Canada is complaining about. My board has aquired a large number of college age umpires over the last few years. They are all hard workers (both on and off the field), some are still in school and all have attended our clinics.
Their biggest complaints are that they are not taken seriously on the field. I have seen this first hand as I am either assigned with them or are out evaluating them to move up to Varsity level and beyond. I have had many coaches approach me during a game wanting me to either talk to my partner or correct his "attitude". To these requests, I have to remind the coaches that my partner is an official of equal rank and capability as myself. I remind them that the youth of my partner has no bearing on the fact that he is my equal and I stand by him and his decisions just as well as I would someone my own age. Finally I firmly request that they treat my partner with the same respect as they would myself or get the hell off the field!
That usually gets the point across!
Yes, age is a very big factor in my part of the country and
everyone is judged by it. It is something that we teach the "youngsters" they have to work hard at getting around this. Whining about it will not change a thing here in New England. These old "Yankees" have been looking at age for decades - hell, I do it myself sometimes!
Tuss will be fine, he has a lot of good people on his HS board and Tuss has a good head on his shoulders. He will get around the "age barrier" of New England in no time.
Tim C., you are absolutely correct in your assumption that he would be an asset to your board. We too would welcome him if decided to umpire in our region.