Quote:
Originally Posted by SRW
Here in Seattle, our umpire association is affiliated with both ASA and NFHS. We assign all high school and middle school games within the Seattle King county area, as well as all SP and JO FP with the ASA brand.
Our general/veteran training is combined with our association meetings. We have 4 general membership / training meetings beginning in January and going through March/April. We have an election for new executive board members in September, and an awards banquet in late September.
Our new umpires (1 and 2 year) have to go through 18 hours of classroom training (3 hour intro to the association, 12 hours of rules, 3 hour open book test) and 6 hours of gym clinic (3 hours of FP plate work, 3 hours of base/field work). They then have to be evaluated and pass on-field games (for FP: 2 plate, 2 base. For SP: 2 1-man games). Once they pass their eval games, we send them on their way to work real games.
It works pretty well. Personally, I would like to see the number of training / general meetings increase to about 6 or 7, but that's a pipe dream with this group.
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SRW is the head cheese for our training. I am honored to be one of his assistants.
We're pretty proud of our training program. SRW is one of several umpires who have taken the bull by the horns over the past five years. Of the umpires who have gone through training since 2003 we have a D-1 umpire, several working other college ball, all kinds of high school ball including state championships, and all levels of ASA including men's FP, SP and JO FP tournaments.
Our goal has been very simple: to train, coach and mentor all of our umpires to become the best umpire they want to be.
This is SRW's first year as the head of our training program, and I have no doubt he will continue our very successful program.
OK, back to my cave...