Dealing with 10U Coaches

[wadeintothem]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

Let me add; I also have a strategy to counter manpower shortage resulting in wanting to use one umpire. In several of our youth associations, I actively recruit older youths to be base umpires in their own program's younger ages. We provide training for them, the league pays for them to register as ASA umpires, the league provides a scheduler/coordinator to schedule youth umpires to their games. Our adult umpire gets the standard $36 if a youth umpire calls the bases; $54 if the youth no shows. The league pays the youth umpires $15 when they do work; pretty decent money for girls 14 to 16 or 17, better than they can get babysitting.

These are players in the older ages, so they have some general game knowledge to begin with; but every one has learned more about the game from the new perspective. We gain the needed manpower to continue using two umpires, the league gets two umpire coverage at the same basic cost (after paying ASA registrations), and we have had several of these youth umpires take the step up after a few years, and joined our ranks as "adult" umpires. Everyone wins; one league has partnered with me in this program for about 7 years, now; another for 4 years.

It could work for your area, too; try it.

Editted to add:

Back to the OP, the coaches and parents learn real quickly not to yell or attack the youth umpires; 1) the adult umpire will step up to protect them, 2) because the league bought in to the program, any issues are dealt with quickly and firmly, and 3) since these girls come from their own league, they may face the youth's parents (who are often coaches and board members). It brings a different (and calming) perspective to the games.

Man your fees are way up there.. I would LOVE to try that type of stuff.. unfortunately its a rec league that doesnt really opperate that way ..

Some great ideas though.. I would like to solve the problem or do something.. this year an adult parent first tried to climb the fence to get on the field, fell off the fence, then charged the field at the umpire resulting in a huge mess, a forfeit and banning from the league of a parent. The umpire, a 15 y/o rookie, not to mention my daughter, had her hands full. She made me proud though.. and she WASNT one of the ones who refused to work anymore because of the way the 10Us act.

That said, somethings gotta be done and I am going to discuss it at length at the board meeting.


I may suck as an umpire, but that dont matter cuz I know one tough girl who will be working the CWS

[Mountaineer]

I may suck as an umpire, but that dont matter cuz I know one tough girl who will be working the CWS

What kind of pants is she wearing? With a navy shirt? That's not what we are supposed to wear in WV.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by Mountaineer

What kind of pants is she wearing? With a navy shirt? That's not what we are supposed to wear in WV.

To the best of my knowledge, that's not what is supposed to be worn anywhere.

Dark blue over dark blue is the ugliest combination of those orginizations that wear blue shirts.

[CecilOne]

I wasn't going to pick on a 15 year old, when given the players and coaches attire, it looked like an in-house beginners league. But then, oh nevermind.

[lildani14]

I worked a 10U districts two weeks ago and I almost gave it up on Saturday night and didn't come back Sunday after the abuse I received. In our 10's our UIC believes in using young umps to get them into the game. Personally, I think 10's are not that bad to ump, the rules are a little screwy, but its the parents and coaches. They are worse at 10U than at 18U, when it actually matters! I am a hometown umpire and was treated just as harshly by the hometown team as I was by the guests. I think at 10U you run into a lot of dad's who played baseball and figure they can coach their daughter's softball team. Example:

I had Coach A in my last game Sat. evening. Didn't like my strike zone or pretty much anything I called. Fine, thats his deal. Had him again on Sun. morning but I was bases. His team batting, pitch comes in, bounces, hits bat that is held *behind* batter. PU calls foul ball...coach goes nuts. Says balls dead, all that good stuff. PU comes out to me, I agree with call...coach just gives us the look that we have no clue.

I'll admit, because I am a 20 yr. old female, most coaches don't give me much respect for my umpiring. But then again, I'm not really good at handling coaches yelling at me... i.e. tossing them. My dad is a former umpire who always tells me to just give them a warning and then toss them, but I don't feel that I have the guts to do that. Plus being 5'4" probably doesn't help with the intimidation factor either.

I wish coaches would also understand and not try and think I'm going to change my call because they're going ballistic. They never said anything I felt was worthy of ejection, they just kept yelling at me because they disagreed with my calls. Basically, I guess, what I'm getting at here throughout this rambling, is that I'm not sure if its worth me working as a blue anymore. Do I need to find some more guts and just toss the coaches for getting on me so hard? Would it help if I worked with a more experienced ump, as opposed to kids younger than me/less experienced? I've been doing this for six years, and that was the worst its ever been.

[Mountaineer]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

To the best of my knowledge, that's not what is supposed to be worn anywhere.

Dark blue over dark blue is the ugliest combination of those orginizations that wear blue shirts.

Saturday, July 8, 2006 - everyone mark this down. Mike and I agreed on something!! I'm getting all choked up . . .