Umpire Camps

[Lawrence_Dorsey]

Scott,

I live in NC and can mention a couple of the clinics I am aware of. Webb Turner runs the Cape Fear Classic Umpire Camp in Fayetteville NC during February. However, I know that last year's camp was cancelled due to low registration and I have not spoken to Webb regarding the future of the camp. Webb is out of the game now and living in VA and that may affect the future. The website for last year's camp is still up http://www.capefearclassic.com. It's a good clinic and you will learn needed elements of umpiring. Matt Hollowell used to also run a similar series of clinics in NJ called the Northeast Umpires Clinic. They had very positive reviews. Matt is also out of baseball now and I believe he had to cancel his clinic last year also. Tony Thompson runs the Southern Umpires Camp in Atl each Feb also. It's the longest running camp of it's kind so they have to be doing some right . You can search on Yahoo for the link but it is definitely worth a look. Good luck on your search.

From the little I have gathered, many of the camps are suffering from lack of attendees and I can only think this has to do with the economy being tough right now. It also has not helped that many of the instructors that started these camps or were long time instructors are no longer in professional baseball. Some aren't even umpiring on the amateur level either.

Regards,

Lawrence