Officially starting my high school umpire journey tonight

[orangebird]

Who doesn't enjoy a good sequel?

After a first year of working rec with a couple sprinkles of travel, I'm ready for both a more thorough level of training and a higher level of play, and that sure sounds like trying to work high school baseball this year! Our first meeting of the year is tonight over Zoom, which feels like a good place to start this thread.

I appreciated everyone's advice last year and if you have anything specific for working HS in terms of a higher level of play, weird quirks of NFHS vs OBR, etc I will still continue to be all ears!

I'll also probably be using this to document what else I end up working this year, I'm hoping to go the whole year only working games on 90-foot diamonds, but that'll seemingly be up to the org I worked with last year that has u15 rec and some travel. 

[grayhawk]

Congrats on moving to the next level. I think, overall, you will find HS baseball easier than rec or travel. For the most part, the players do more of what you expect them to do and you'll have less funky plays to officiate.
 

I'm sure your training will cover HS rules. Some of the major differences:

ALL obstruction is a delayed dead ball, and ALWAYS results in at least a one base award from the runner's position at the time of the obstruction.

There is no "in the act of fielding" in HS. The fielder either has possession, or he doesn't.

Force Play Slide Rule - it's different from the bonafide slide rule in OBR

Runner's Lane Interference - pay close attention on how your association wants it to be called.

Follow-through interference (sometimes called backswing interference) - same as batter's interference. Someone is going to be out.

Pitching positions - I'm not up-to-date on them, but they'll be different from OBR

Dugout Restrictions - nothing similar in OBR. Part of your "toolbox" to manage a game, which will be important in those freshman games that might only have one babysitter coach.

You'll likely be asked to confirm game details a few days in advance via email with the coach or AD. Game date, time, location (JV field, varsity field), and if you'll have access to a locker room (more for varsity). Get examples of emails from a varsity umpire you trust. We always asked our umpires at all levels to arrive no less than 45 minutes before game time, wear decent clothes (business casual) and then go to the field and find the coach to let them know you have arrived and to reconfirm game time and when you'll come back for the plate meeting. There have been several times in my career that the visiting team will be late because of bus issues or traffic. Good to know before you show up 10 minutes before the game starts for the plate meeting and only the home team is there. Your association may do things differently. 

 

[orangebird]

Well I'm having a fun time learning about the logistics of this, just learnt what Dragonfly is and that we have an online clinic we need to watch before we take the test starting next week

[834k3r]

2 hours ago, orangebird said:

Well I'm having a fun time learning about the logistics of this, just learnt what Dragonfly is and that we have an online clinic we need to watch before we take the test starting next week

There are many opinions when discussing DF, but I find it easier and more friendly than Arbiter. I do wish you could see which peers were on which game, but overall DF does very well what I need it to do.

Just remember your assigner will appreciate you putting in schedule blocks (times/days when you're not available) as soon as you know about them, as well as accepting assignments as soon as you can (so he can not worry about you covering as he's scheduled you to).

Happy to help you navigate DF as you need--drop me a DM.

[orangebird]

35 minutes ago, 834k3r said:

There are many opinions when discussing DF, but I find it easier and more friendly than Arbiter. I do wish you could see which peers were on which game, but overall DF does very well what I need it to do.

Just remember your assigner will appreciate you putting in schedule blocks (times/days when you're not available) as soon as you know about them, as well as accepting assignments as soon as you can (so he can not worry about you covering as he's scheduled you to).

Happy to help you navigate DF as you need--drop me a DM.

To be clear Dragonfly just seems to be hosting the clinic and test, Arbiter is our scheduling site and one of my rec ball orgs used it last year so I think I've got that figured out 

[grayhawk]

46 minutes ago, orangebird said:

To be clear Dragonfly just seems to be hosting the clinic and test, Arbiter is our scheduling site and one of my rec ball orgs used it last year so I think I've got that figured out 

Do make sure to keep your blocks up-to-date. Assigners HATE declines and hate turnbacks even more. Some assigners keep the assigning fee when you turn back a game. You'll move up quicker if you are religious on keeping your schedule in order.

[orangebird]

1 hour ago, grayhawk said:

Do make sure to keep your blocks up-to-date. Assigners HATE declines and hate turnbacks even more. Some assigners keep the assigning fee when you turn back a game. You'll move up quicker if you are religious on keeping your schedule in order.

Yeah I tried to do that last year, only turnbacks/declines were from compression shorts somehow taking like 3 weeks in the mail and getting a nasty bruise on my thigh from a 13-year-old who threw 80, who I mentioned in last year's thread haha 

[orangebird]

Watching a mandatory rules clinic from the state governing body, which started by saying Maryland won't use the double base this year and now has spent 7 minutes explaining the rules of it anyway

[The Man in Blue]

Just thinking out loud on that one:

Does NFHS require their presentation to be used in full?  Meaning states can add info, but not take info away?  

[orangebird]

So the meeting I started the thread for was largely just some random administrative stuff but today I had my first proper HS in-person training meeting and it was a lot, but largely in a good way

They started with going over who has what touches in what situations stuff, which was not even remotely on the radar for rec training...quite reasonably lol...but that was a pretty instant "oh yeah this is training for adults"

Then we went over some ejection stuff, which was also pretty new for me. My rec ejection policy basically "don't curse at me or call me names" lol so it was good to have some more concrete guidance. They explained the idea of a soft warning which is like going "coach, I heard you, chill" and a hard warning which is officially saying someone has been warned, which made sense to me

Also this training had been happening for a few weeks and I am quite frankly a bit annoyed that no one told me this was happening when it started but the guy running it understood but still, not exactly great!

Anyways I now have the NFHS rulebook and casebook and am taking the test as we speak, which is also neat

[orangebird]

43/50! It was 38/50 to pass, so mission accomplished with room to spare. 😎

It doesn't let me see what I got wrong, but it lists the following rules: 

1-1-2; 8-3-3d, f; 8-4-2d Penalty; Courtesy Runner Rule #4; NFHS Umpire Signals; Speed-Up Rules, Courtesy Runners 2 and 7; 2-36-3b

No idea what I got wrong for the umpire signals, those seemed pretty straightforward. Courtesy runner doesn't surprise me, I definitely made sure I read those but that simply wasn't something relevant to me last year and it doesn't really feel intuitive to me the same way in-game rules like dropped third, infield fly, etc work.

[BLWizzRanger]

Well, with nothing else, those seven will be more understandable and ingrained into memory once you've experience them.  But, most likely, a few of those were trick questions or pick best answer questions that you didn't pick up on the subtly of the answer.

[The Man in Blue]

11 hours ago, orangebird said:

43/50! It was 38/50 to pass, so mission accomplished with room to spare. 😎

It doesn't let me see what I got wrong, but it lists the following rules: 

 

I cannot stand tests like this.  Is the point to use this as a tool to make us better umpires, or is it simply to appear we are doing something (and maybe weed out a few yokels)?  If you are not helping correct us, it appears to be the latter.

Not sure how your state works, but here we are able to print out the entire question bank (and multiple choice answers) ahead of time.

I take this and put it in a spreadsheet and work the entire question bank on my own.  Some years I get access to a key from an association, so I can score it myself.

When I take the actual test, I already have my answer (hopefully right) and plug it in fairly quickly.

The state will tell you which ones you got wrong, but they don't tell you the correct answer.  That's when I go back to my spreadsheet.  I find one of two things usually happens: either I totally disagree with the answer they arrived at, or I was not careful and misread it.

I have the last few years saved for reference.   

[orangebird]

11 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

 

I cannot stand tests like this.  Is the point to use this as a tool to make us better umpires, or is it simply to appear we are doing something (and maybe weed out a few yokels)?  If you are not helping correct us, it appears to be the latter.

Not sure how your state works, but here we are able to print out the entire question bank (and multiple choice answers) ahead of time.

I take this and put it in a spreadsheet and work the entire question bank on my own.  Some years I get access to a key from an association, so I can score it myself.

When I take the actual test, I already have my answer (hopefully right) and plug it in fairly quickly.

The state will tell you which ones you got wrong, but they don't tell you the correct answer.  That's when I go back to my spreadsheet.  I find one of two things usually happens: either I totally disagree with the answer they arrived at, or I was not careful and misread it.

I have the last few years saved for reference.   

Yeah to be clear I can't see the test now, but I can in about a month, same timing Maryland uses for every spring sport test it appears

  

 

[834k3r]

13 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Not sure how your state works, but here we are able to print out the entire question bank (and multiple choice answers) ahead of time.

I take this and put it in a spreadsheet and work the entire question bank on my own. 

I have a similar process, but I have to copy and paste the 50 questions from the website. I have a question bank document (Pages/Word document) that I refer back to for questions asked in years prior. Then I work the questions, first from memory, then again referencing the rule book to ensure correct answers.

YMMV.

[BLWizzRanger]

i might be the odd ball out here.  I like to do it alone in one night, maybe two.  Answering the problem and then researching it to see if I got it right.  I do not give a darn about previous tests as this one, I can learn again.

<rant on> One thing that my Board does is the someone gets all of the questions and the board goes over the questions one by one throwing out answers to each question.  I can't stand this.  I have a very knowledgeable board but this does not help the handful of slackers we have and we see that on the field.  I sit through it in case someone brings up a different way of thinking about a question/rule, but, I have my test completed already.  I know we aren't studying physics or the human anatomy or trying to solve world peace.   I just don't think it is conducive to learning being hand fed the answers.   <rant off>

[orangebird]

2 hours ago, BLWizzRanger said:

i might be the odd ball out here.  I like to do it alone in one night, maybe two.  Answering the problem and then researching it to see if I got it right.  I do not give a darn about previous tests as this one, I can learn again.

<rant on> One thing that my Board does is the someone gets all of the questions and the board goes over the questions one by one throwing out answers to each question.  I can't stand this.  I have a very knowledgeable board but this does not help the handful of slackers we have and we see that on the field.  I sit through it in case someone brings up a different way of thinking about a question/rule, but, I have my test completed already.  I know we aren't studying physics or the human anatomy or trying to solve world peace.   I just don't think it is conducive to learning being hand fed the answers.   <rant off>

Yeah my org has a rules committee that said they'll be doing a few Zooms to help with the test, no idea how close they'll come to straight up giving the answers but figure it'll be worth listening to regardless

[The Man in Blue]

@834k3r -- Yes, I do that same copy and paste to get there.  Some guys print it out for their local association meeting.  

I have never bothered attending one of those association "reviews" -- heck, I haven't even joined the local old boys' social club in years.  My biggest gripe with those was the number of guys who only came to get the answers.

@BLWizzRanger -- that is a strategy we used when I taught middle school social studies.  We didn't just want to find the right answer, we wanted to be able to explain why each of the wrong answers was wrong.  It strengthens analytical and critical thinking.  (It also gives us 4x the content on a question!)

A few years ago we had a new guy who failed his softball test, then was reaching out complaining it only gave him half the test.  Nah, fool didn't know you only get 25 of the 50 questions and they are random.  He didn't even read the questions he was getting, he literally just went down his list 1-A, 2-C, 3-B, 4-A . . .   

[BigBlue4u]

On 2/7/2026 at 8:36 AM, The Man in Blue said:

Does NFHS require their presentation to be used in full?  Meaning states can add info, but not take info away?  

Our state will not use the double first base in 2026.  The PowerPoint presenter spent about 15 seconds touching on it as a new rule for 2027. From what I understand, our state uses the NFHS PowerPoint as an outline and then adds/emphasizes or subtracts what is deemed applicable. This year's presentation ran about 15 minutes.

[dumbdumb]

just remember. while there are umpires out there that could not, rule knowledge, their way out of a wet paper bag, we also have umpires out there that could not, ball/strike safe/ out, their way out of a wet paper bag, much less ones on either side of the equation that have, game management/situational/confrontation skills, their way out of a wet paper bag.

[The Man in Blue]

11 hours ago, dumbdumb said:

just remember. while there are umpires out there that could not, rule knowledge, their way out of a wet paper bag, we also have umpires out there that could not, ball/strike safe/ out, their way out of a wet paper bag, much less ones on either side of the equation that have, game management/situational/confrontation skills, their way out of a wet paper bag.

 

Only speaking for Illinois:

Nowhere in the qualifications to be selected for state finals or promotion is a direct critique or rating of balls/strikes or safe/out calls.

Just saying: if it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.    (Or is it?)

[dumbdumb]

2 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

 

Only speaking for Illinois:

Nowhere in the qualifications to be selected for state finals or promotion is a direct critique or rating of balls/strikes or safe/out calls.

Just saying: if it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.    (Or is it?)

does that mean you cannot wait till full abs and replay review works it way down to all levels, and AI takes over (or does it), the handling situations correctly statistics too, for promotions and state finals

[BigBlue4u]

On 2/14/2026 at 7:02 AM, dumbdumb said:

just remember. while there are umpires out there that could not, rule knowledge, their way out of a wet paper bag, we also have umpires out there that could not, ball/strike safe/ out, their way out of a wet paper bag, much less ones on either side of the equation that have, game management/situational/confrontation skills, their way out of a wet paper bag.

And, your point is?

[grayhawk]

When I worked HS ball, our association had a 110 question study guide, from which 30 questions were selected for the closed book qualification exam (in class). We had study guide sessions held by more experienced members, but you couldn't enter unless your study guide was completed (enforcement of which was different for different sessions). We would then go around the room, question by question, read the question and give our answer. If there was agreement, we moved on. If not, then there would be a brief discussion and then we'd move on. Giving the rule or casebook reference was encouraged.

[orangebird]

12 minutes ago, grayhawk said:

When I worked HS ball, our association had a 110 question study guide, from which 30 questions were selected for the closed book qualification exam (in class). We had study guide sessions held by more experienced members, but you couldn't enter unless your study guide was completed (enforcement of which was different for different sessions). We would then go around the room, question by question, read the question and give our answer. If there was agreement, we moved on. If not, then there would be a brief discussion and then we'd move on. Giving the rule or casebook reference was encouraged.

Yeah I find the idea that my HS test was open-note, open ask your org's employees for help and untimed pretty amusing when my two rec orgs last year were closed note, turn on your camera on Zoom so we can see if you're cheating and open note but timed