New Guy from Wisconsin

[GoodOldGus]

Hello everyone!  I suppose it's time to officially introduce myself to the U-E community.  I've been a long time reader and an occasional poster to the forums.  I've been involved one way or another with the game of baseball for several years.  I ran my hometown's "summer rec" program all through college which exposed me to several different age groups as well as my first taste of umpiring.  I umpired everything from pee-wee leagues to men's slow pitch softball for 5 summers.  More recently, I spent the last 8 years as the head varsity baseball coach of my hometown.  I used to reference this forum as a coach to gain an "umpire's perspective" and I even posted a few questions in the "Ask the Umpire" forum.  Either way, I've always told myself that when I got out of coaching, I wanted to umpire.  So here I am.  I resigned after last season and will be entering my first spring as a WIAA licensed official whenever the weather wants to cooperate here in Wisconsin.

 

The transition from coach to umpire has been pretty smooth.  I know several of the umpires in the area as well as other coaches and athletic directors, so they've been a great resource.  Some of the looks I received, however,  from fellow umpires when I walked into my first Association meeting were priceless!!  All in all, I'm very excited to officially begin umpiring and I find this forum very, very valuable.

[JaxRolo]

Welcome!

[RookieUmp]

Welcome Gus!

I'm also new and in Wisconsin. Good luck and maybe I'll see you around!

[Umpire in Chief]

Lesson #1 of umpiring...

 

Forget everything you think you know as a coach.

 

Start as a blank slate. Once you learn umpiring fairly well reignite your baseball instincts, then you will be ahead of the curve. But don't start thinking about baseball instincts until you have that firm grasp of umpiring. Oh, and don't watch a fly ball in flight, let the fielders take you to the ball.

 

Glad to have you here.

[plateumpire]

Hi, I am new too.