Softball Communication 2024 - 2025

Greetings ADs, school staff, and section softball coordinators:

Here is a recap of the 2024 softball season

●We assigned 706 umpires to 308 regular season games.

●We assigned 95 umpires to 42 section games.

●We visited 7 schools to discuss new rules, and appropriate interactions between players, coaches, and umpires and presented m material to attempt to recruit new umpires.

●Working together to reschedule games to alternate days of the week, we could assign umpires to all but a few JV contests and one varsity contest. Thank you for using alternate days to get your games played!

●We conducted an umpire mechanics clinic in the early season dome games to improve our umpires' mechanics and field movements so that they are in the proper position to make quality calls.

●We proudly report that we had seven SCOA u m p ires selected for the MSHSL State Softball Tournament.

Please offer any suggestions to improve the assigning process!

Items I stress to our umpires are:

1. Check in with the AD or Designated School Representative 2 days prior to the game to confirm the date, time, and location of the contest.

2. Ask for the representative's cell number in case of travel issues.

3. Be professional with communication and appearance.

4. Know softball rules and apply them as written. I can defund judgment but not a misapplied rule.

5. Allow the coach to ask questions, and answer the question with appropriate rule references.

Please offer any compliments, and items that we are doing well, so I can pass that along to our umpires!

Moving forward to the 2025 softball season we will again offer to visit your schools to discuss rule changes, in interactions between coaches, players, and um p ires, and attempt to recruit new umpires for the future. This year I would like to invite your players' parents to the recruiting meeting. We find that many parents try umpiring after their student-athlete has completed their playing career.