Training young officials
 

This was a first - looking forward to it!

You will be assigned to “Observe youth officials”. The arbiter assignment will say observe - Have your shirt on, and whistle ready, but your primary responsibility is to watch two youth officials ref and provide them ongoing feedback throughout the game. They have all attended a 3 ½ hour clinic and have 0 to 2 years’ experience calling games. If you want to run and shadow them, or they shadow you, or you just watch from the middle of the court at the scorer’s table, it’s all up to you. Make sure they have a pre-game meeting with the coaches. If any coach or spectator gets out of control, you take over assisting the youth refs. If we have a hard foul, and no call, you blow the whistle and make the call. These assignments can be 1, 2, 3 or even 4 hours long. PROVIDE THE YOUTH OFFICIAL FEEDBACK, AND SEND AN EMAIL WITH RATING.

I would probably treat it as if you were a clinician at a camp, but obviously you have the right to step in to keep the game under control. Best of luck!

Ahh the good old days.....nothing worse than a 4th grade Mom sitting 2 inches off the sideline cheering on Johnny.

Doesn't matter so long as she is HOT!!!!
using my best Mark Padgett impersonation

Noble assignment, but dare I ask ... fee?

There are three fees for this rec league, with this assignment being the lowest of the three (the other two are a crew of 1 adult with one kid, and a crew of two adults).

Sounds interesting!

Knowing how difficult it is to referee, especially at a very young age, I try to give them just a few things to work on (i.e. - hustle, strong whistle, positioning, hand and arm signals) and am always, always encouraging.

I couldn't see myself doing this as a teenager.......

Good luck to you ;)

I started umpiring baseball when I was 15. 5th and 6th grade summer rec ball. It was the first years of the players pitching. They drew umpire for that level, and typically for 7th grade and even into 8th grade, from the high school baseball teams. We were basically thrown out there with no training, so to have something like this would have been great.

I kept umpiring after high school, primarily at the 8th grade level, for a total umpiring "career" of around 8 years. I got my state certification just after high school to get a little extra per-game pay, but it wasn't until probably year 5 that I started visiting sites like this and Umpire-Empire, ordered my own equipment, and really focused on trying to improve myself and be able to confidently work with and provide some pointers to the younger partners I worked with. Unfortunately I've had some medical issues come up that made continuing on impossible, but I felt really good about how things were headed.

I think that if we would have had some sort of training program in place, things would be better all around. The umpires treat it more seriously instead of an "easy $35-$45" for 2-3 hours of your time, depending on the level. The umpires are more confident in what they're doing. They call a better game. That translates to a better experience for the participants, parents watching, and coaches, although it always seemed like some coaches will never be happy :p.

Ultimately I think it's a great thing that you're doing and I hope it all works out for the best.