Umpire Ethics

[Rich]

Originally Posted by yawetag

At the least, you should block yourself from any game at any level of your son's school. As for other teams in the league, you should ask your umpire organization. If the conference record is what gets teams in the playoffs, I might even ask to not do any conference games for the teams in the league.

Around here, that would be considered overkill of the highest degree.

[scrounge]

I would just tell your assignor the facts and let him give you input. In my case, my son didn't play on the team but my assignors had no problem with me working that school's games at the middle school or JV level. Varsity would be a different story, just for appearance's sake, but it was a non-issue sub-varsity. And if I didn't work the entire league, 3/4th's of my schedule would disappear.

[Forest Ump]

BS....Talk to our assignor as Scrooge has also advised you to do. I had a similar issue last year with my daughter playing and doing sports med. I spoke with the L man about it. You should do the same. He'll probably advise you to block that school at the frosh level but not JV/V and certainly not the whole league.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Forest Ump

BS....Talk to our assignor as Scrooge has also advised you to do. I had a similar issue last year with my daughter playing and doing sports med. I spoke with the L man about it. You should do the same. He'll probably advise you to block that school at the frosh level but not JV/V and certainly not the whole league.

That's what I would do, too.

Around here I guarantee you'd run into at least one date where you'd be called into duty on the FR game (with your kid playing) because they're short an umpire at the last minute. And the other coach wouldn't care, either. Of course here the game can't start with fewer than 2 umpires, so it's occasionally a problem.

[johnnyg08]

Stay away from the Varsity. The rest shouldn't matter. I wouldn't WANT to officiate a game in which my child is playing. At varsity and above, it would also be unethical.

[nopachunts]

Our HS school chapter has us sign a Conflict of Interest disclosure. If we have a child attending, playing, employee of, or vested interest in any school that we provide services for, the umpire will not be assigned to any game for that school regardless of level. We have several umpires that are on school boards and they don't do that school's games either.

If you had a child attending or playing, we don't assign that umpire to that school's games for two years after the child has left the school.

[CT1]

Originally Posted by nopachunts

Our HS school chapter has us sign a Conflict of Interest disclosure. If we have a child attending, playing, employee of, or vested interest in any school that we provide services for, the umpire will not be assigned to any game for that school regardless of level. We have several umpires that are on school boards and they don't do that school's games either.

If you had a child attending or playing, we don't assign that umpire to that school's games for two years after the child has left the school.

Although we don't have a formal disclosure statement, our policy is basically the same.

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by scrounge

I would just tell your assignor the facts and let him give you input.

I agree with this advice. If you try to pick and choose which schools and divisions to block on your own, you'll end up limiting your availability at the detriment of your association.

Your assignor has (or should have) a good feel for the lay of the land with respect to athletic directors and coaches, and how amenable they are to accepting umpires. There may be a couple of very anal coaches who will do their homework on scheduled umpires, while there may be others who are happy with any umpire that has a reasonable level of skill, and yet others who are satisfied with two warm bodies in blue. Why take away opportunities to work games where the coaches don't care who is on the field?

What I wouldn't do is make it apparent that you have some affiliation with a school that can be perceived as a problem. You certainly wouldn't want to be quite vocal at your kid's game against Notre Dame Prep School, and then be the plate umpire for NDPS's next game.