Softball Baseball

[BretMan]

Just ran across something interesting that kind of fits in with this thread...

My two areas of certification/registration are NFHS baseball and ASA softball. My region is one of those where the NFHS baseball and softball umpires are in totally different groups, with different associations, meetings, assingors, etc.

I thought that I would look into becoming certified for NFHS softball, so I searched for and found the web site run by their local umpire group. On the first page, there was a plea for more umpires! It said that they have a severe shortage and were begging their members to accept more games to their schedules.

Cool. Sounds like a favorable "supply/demand" situation and a good chance to get my foot in the door!

So I contact their association president for more info. Come to find out that their mandatory meetings are held on exactly the same the same nights, at the exact same hour, as the mandatory NFHS baseball meetings are held.

This makes it impossible for an umpire to meet the classroon requirements and get certified for both sports in this area. My only option in doing NFHS softball would be to attend the meetings for a different association- one is about an hour south of me, the other about an hour north- and then I would only be assigned games in those far-off districts.

Guess I won't be doing any high school softball anytime soon...