NFHS 2 umpire required?
 

Was doing a high school softball game, and the baseball game on the field over had an umpire not show up. The other umpire refused to do the game by himself (or with the help of a parent) and reference that there must be 2 officials at a NFHS game in case issues arise or protests, so he declined to umpire the game and the teams just went home.

Is this a rule somewhere? I have many times umpired a game by myself when the other umpire got sick or whatever and couldnt find a replacement, but i never knew of this kind of situation.

Any comments?

Could be a local/state rule. Five years removed from working in Penn. but I remember seeing in the state official’s manual there was a minimum you could start and finish a game with, for all sports. Baseball was had to have 2 to start, but could finish with one.

I’d consider doing solo, but not with a parent.

I just scanned the current PA Officials Manual; unless I overlooked it, there is no mention of the number of officials required for any sport.

Without knowing the underlying facts and circumstances, I would not criticize the umpire's refusal to work solo.

Looked at it too after I posted and didn’t see it. May have been removed or in a different memo, but I remember seeing it a list of minimums. Like I said, 5 years removed from working PIAA.

Is it possible it existed at one point but the growing shortage of umpires across the country has led to these requirements being repealed?

In my part of the mitten state, the crunch for umpires is such that it would be difficult to assign two umpires to each and every sub-varsity game (MS, FR, JV) -- even with schools trying to be accommodating in their scheduling. All it takes is one sick, injured, or no-show umpire on any given day to throw a monkey wrench into the day's assignments.

As an example, I had to start a freshman baseball doubleheader solo this Spring because my partner was needed to do the bases in a varsity game going on concurrently at the same site. Once that game ended, he came to my field to finish that game on the bases and did game two on the dish.

At least one area league, due to the shortage of umpires, assigns only one to their Freshman and JV baseball/softball games.

Wisconsin requires 2 umpires at every level of HS baseball and softball.

If there's one, the teams can scrimmage, but there can be no game.

Personally, I'm happy about this, because there are schools that would hire 1 just to save some bucks.