Breaking into the college level
 

I've been working progressively more and better high school games over the last 13 years. As I look to the next 5 years, I'd like to keep working up in quality. How do you recommend I break into the college ranks?

I'm in western Wisconsin so MN and WI are options with lots of JuCo, NAIA, and D3 schools within a 2 hour drive.

How much is coordinated at a school level? Conference level? Division level?

Is becoming "certified" as simple as registering on arbitersports.com, selecting conferences, and sending in the test?

Is there value to getting registered now in hopes of getting games in 2-3 years?

I know how MN and WI operate on the high school level, but college is totally new to me.


A quick search yielded few helpful results. If this has been addressed in another thread, I apologize. Feel free to redirect me there if you know where "there" is.

The best thing to do is findout who assigns the schools that you are referring to and send them an email with a resume and a short bio. Follow that up with a phone call and go from there. Good luck.

Like any job, you'll need experience, a resume, and you need to attend some clinics that have coordinators and assigners present so they can see you. Get evaluated in a game with them watching you. In many cases, you'll pay your dues and get nothing from it. That's how it is nationally. In MN, the main college group of umpires above JUCO/Community College is basically an "invite only" group...they are a very solid group, but it's tough to break in. Nationally some guys pay dues to up to five associations, plus the new NCAA fee with little or no promise of assignments. It's tough. Keep working hard to get noticed, you'll get your shot.

For the lower levels, I believe it just depends on the conference and how spread out it is. I played for an NAIA school and our umpires came from a conference assignor. However, I currently work for an assignor who assigns one local Div. III and one local NAIA school.

Contact some of the schools directly and ask if they can put you in contact with whomever they get their games assigned by.

Contact a couple of schools close to you and offer to work Fall scrimmages for free. They appreciate having umpires, especially ones they don't have to pay for, and you'll get a feel for what ball is like at that level.
Do the camp/clinic thing, and rub elbows with as many assignors as possible. Let them know you're new, but want to work.
Find several veteran umpires and let them mentor you - they'll give you insight to the higher levels of the game that you'll appreciate having.
If you have the time and resources, go to a pro school. They'll give you the tools and the confidence to move up.
Have fun, work hard, and good luck!

JJ

The assignor is the man. He probably participates in NCAA oriented 2 and 3-man clinics. Attend them. Get in front of him and work your ašs off.

I got in with the coach at my favorite D-I school and park (about a half mile from my office), and after working most of his fall scrimmage schedule, he asked me to contact and schedule all the umpires for all the winter scrimmages and for the future scrimmages. It is an excellent way to A) Get better, B) Get Seen and C) Move up.

(It wound up paying me back rather handsomely in the form of extensive three-man experience, experience calling high-level pitching and base running, etc., but, like JJ mentioned, they really appreciate it. I got park privileges, team gear, unlimited game tickets at home games and reasonable numbers of tickets at away games. I now follow the team.)

i know a guy who schedules NAIA and DIII in your area, let me make sure he still does.... you can email him... make a resume to have on hand...go to clinics that is really the easy way to get int.. I got into College by going to a clinic....It's not as hard as you think.. D1 on the other hand is a whole different game..LOL

Go to the WIAC website and look for the name of the umpire assigner and send him an email. He's a WIAA official, so you can find his contact information there. Last I checked, he assigns the NAC, as well. Of course, even though there's a WIAC school in La Crosse, every other place is a long drive and don't expect the assignments to ever be made based on what makes a trip shorter and easier for an umpire.

I worked those conferences for 5 years before I decided to pack in college baseball here. The drives are terribly long, everyone plays 2 9-inning games, and the pay is terrible for the amount of time and the amount of crap. Neither conference pays travel and in 5 years I had one hotel room paid for. Many of the games are long because the pitching is miserable (if they were better pitchers, they'd be playing college ball somewhere other than at a D3 school in the Hinterlands).

But a lot of umpires apparently like this. Perhaps I would if I didn't also work football and basketball and felt I needed something to go -- and working a HS game 20 minutes away is a better use of my time (and the baseball isn't that much better at the college level here, IMO).