Tony_scibs

"That's not fair, he just caught it with his neck"

I'm all for a commemorative hat.

I couldn't agree more. I have done football, basketball, and volleyball, and I feel that all three have made me a better softball umpire.

Congrats, Kevin K. We have paid line judges in high school volleyball here in Northeast Ohio. Line judged for the first time this fall (about 25 JV/varsity games). I absolutely love it. Great sport to officiate. Looking to get my PAVO certification and hope to get into NCAA line judging in the future. Also getting my OHSAA R1 and R2 certifications next summer. How did it go at the tournament?

Freelance web developer and real estate agent. Very flexible hours.

Sorry to hear, BT. Sounds like you have a plan. Good luck to you

@Kevin_K Exactly! Volleyball is a great break after a long summer of softball. I get back into umpiring fastpitch softball indoors starting in December. Strict hour and 15 minute drop dead time limits. Love it.

Welcome to the forum.

Made the jump myself this year. Still finishing out my high school coaching responsibilities for this season, but am starting my travel softball umpiring adventure tomorrow. Six games tomorrow. Twelve next weekend. By the way, I am in the Cleveland area (Lake County). There is plenty of work available around here between high school, travel tournaments and rec leagues. Good luck to you if you do make the choice!

Congratulations! Sounds like an awesome experience.

Both the softball and baseball FED tests here in Ohio are open book and online. You must get an 80% or higher on two parts: Mechanics (50 questions) and rules (50 questions). There is an additional 30 question general OHSAA rules test as well. I just passed my FED this past weekend! First assignment coming up this Saturday. I am pumped!

Read the book about a week ago. Thought it was an interesting read. Agree that it wasn't GREAT, but definitely worth the read. I put Harvey's book in the same class as "Planet of the Umps (Ken Kaiser), "Working the Plate" (Eric Gregg), and "Three and Out" (Tom Gorman). For my money the best all around book on umpiring is "As They See It". NOTE: I am a major book nerd.

Welcome. I am in Willoughby, Ohio. Not too far from you. Hope downtown Garretsville is getting back on track after the fire last year. Ever do ump work at the G-Plex there in town? I know they do a lot of indoor softball there. Not sure if they do any baseball.

Thanks for all the responses. I am thoroughly enjoying the site and the discussions!

In Ohio, our high school softball coaching association used to have a session regarding new rules, points of emphasis, and question and answer session during our state coaches clinic. Typically the state rules interpreter would give the presentation. Without fail, the discussion would degenerate into frustrated complaining and chirping from the 600 coaches in attendance. The rules interpreter would have to explain over and over "Look I didn't pass this rule, I am here to tell you what it means and how we will be applying it." The state has since gone to a totally online training module to present the new rules and points of emphasis. As a high school coach for 13 years, I can say quite confidently that many of the coaches don't know the rules and even more have no idea about umpire mechanics, positioning, etc. That said, I think the majority of coaches are looking for: 1) Approachability 2) Consistency from high school umpires. I believe this to be true in softball and baseball

Hello, my name is Tony, and I am in the very beginning stages of my umpiring journey...the very beginning: I will take my first Ohio High School Athletic Association softball umpiring classes starting in January of 2015. I have been on the "other side" for over 14 years: a high school and travel fastpitch softball coach. For years, I have toyed around with the idea of umpiring; recently, however, the desire to umpire has turned into a strange obsession. I cannot fully explain why this change in me has occurred, but I know it is very real. The good thing about coaching in well over 700 high school / travel ball games is that I hold very few illusions about the job of umpiring. It is a hard and thankless job at times. Like anything, there are pros and cons. But, I hope that the transition into umpiring will be fun one (despite some headaches along the way). I plan to umpire in PGF and ASA softball events in 2015. I hope to umpire some OHSAA varsity softball games as well as some Junior College softball games in the coming years as I develop. Umpiring in baseball is also something I would like to do in the coming years, but I think that starting in my sport (fastpitch softball) is the logical first step. I thoroughly enjoy the site and the discussions/posts on this forum. They are inspiring and informative. Any way, good luck to all the umpires on this board! Tony from Cleveland