Author Archives: admin

2023 NBUA Schedule

NBUA 2023 TOURNAMENTS and SEASONS

Late April               High School District Playoffs Begin
May 7                     Opening Day 15u-16u
May 11-14             Seattle Elite Wood Bat Invitational
May 20                    High School Regional Playoffs begin
May 21                   Opening Day 18u
May 25-29             Art Wright Memorial Day Tournament
May 27                    High School Playoff Finals
June 1- July 31      PIL League 
June 7                    Seattle Premier Invitational Tournament
June 21-26            Josh Dickerson Memorial Tournament
June 29-July 3      Lee Johnson Firecracker Tournament
July 5-17                Brandy Pugh
May-Oct                PSSBL
July 5-12               14u 14u Elite League Playoffs
July 12-16             Baden NW Club Championships
July 18-25             15u Elite League Playoffs
July 19-26             16u Elite League Playoffs
July 26-31             18u Elite League Playoffs
Sept 15- Oct 31  Seattle Elite Fall Ball

Yes, we are going to try to cover all of this with NBUA umpires. The tournament weekends will be particularly challenging so plan your vacations accordingly.

RTO returns

NBUA

Every year about this time, I am directed by your Board of Directors, to reintroduce the RTO Program driven by the Washington Officials Association (WOA). I’m asking the following of every NBUA member, regardless of tier. All tiers are asked to participate in RTO.

The RTO Program

The RTO Program is a collaborative effort of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association and the Washington Officials Association to improve the level of officiating for WIAA contests. RTO stands for Retention, Training and Observation. There is one other component of this program not listed in the RTO acronym. That component is standards. Before you can hold someone accountable you must clearly state what they are being held accountable for. To that end, the WOA is developing standards of conduct and performance for our members in each sport covered by the WOA. These standards are the yardstick by which every official will be measured.

  • Go into the Central Hub (again)
  • Click on the Eligibility Center
  • Click on RTO 2023
  • Complete the 2 clinics listed
  • I did this. It took about 7 minutes.
  • Pretty simple…
  • Every tier is asked to get this done by your BOD
  • B, A and TT umpires are required by the WOA to become RTO’d, in order to become eligible to assigned:
    • Post Season District contests
    • Regionals
    • State Finals
    • District contests begin in early May
  • Rookie & Transfer Members, please contact your Mentors for additional assistance. Your Mentors have all done this before.
  • Please have your RTO requirements completed by May 1.
  • As your Assignor, I can track this ongoing.

Thanks

Mark Clough

NBUA Assignor

2023 Training Videos Available

All of our classroom sessions are being recorded these days and the videos are all available on the Training Schedule page accessed via the Members/Training menu. The members password is required to access this page.

In the table that lists the training events, the column on the right hand side labeled “Links” will be populated with the video link as the sessions are held. At this time, no training credit is given for viewing these classes after the fact, but they can be used to catch-up or review.

Apprentice and C-Tier umpires are welcomed to watch classes held for the higher tiers just to inform themselves of the subjects being discussed. Upper tier umpires might be interested to view classes for the lower tiers to answer the question, “what the heck are they teaching these guys?”

Your Humble Webmaster

2023 Training Schedule

The 2023 training schedule has been posted (or, at least, part of it has). The training schedule is a work in progress and we have published as much as we know at this point. To keep up to date, visit this site often.

The schedule is published in two formats. The first is found in the Members section under Training and it requires the viewer to enter the members password to view. As the sessions are often on-line these days, we record the sessions and post the links on this page so that anyone interested, can catch up. These links are for informational purposes only and no credit will be given for watching these sessions after the fact.

The second format is via the NBUA Calendar found under the Information menu. The next five elements of the calendar will also appear on the sidebar of each page of the website. When opening the calendar, it will display as a simple list. If you like a more calendar-like display, simply select the “Month” icon on the page. You can use the search function on the page to select events of interest. You could display only training events by searching for the word “Training”. You could display only the training schedule for the C-Tier by typing “C-Tier” into the calendar search box.

If you select individual events on the calendar, more information will be displayed about that particular session including maps and attachments (if any).

And let the season begin!

2022 Promotions and Awards

2022 NBUA Promotions and Awards were announced at the annual banquet,
Maplewood Country Club, Renton, on September 17th , 2022.

The banquet was MC’d by Mark Clough and produced by Mark and Chris
VonJouanne, hosted by Peyton Coffin.

The promotions, announced by Greg Olmstead, Evaluations Chairman:
Promoted from Apprentice to C Tier:
Adam Carlson, Craig Tashiro, Dan Eck, Richard Hepler, Andrew Alsdorf, Bryan
McNair, Tedd Dideriksen, Mario Padilla, Michael Skarin and…

… one other C Tier promotion: The recipient of the Leslie Fitzpatrick Rookie of the Year Award, named after our long-time, beloved assignor, for an “Outstanding Umpire
of the Present and the Future.” Brian Rooney, Recruiting and Retention Chairman,
awarded it to: Nick Gallagher! Nick crossed 153 games off his bucket list in his
first year as an umpire!

We had a special promotion awarded to a 2nd year umpire with NBUA (but very
experienced elsewhere, including Europe), who attended professional umpire
school and was accepted into the college umpire ranks. Promoted from C to A tier:
Chris Castro.

Promoted to B Tier:
Casey Bloom, Thomas Peckham, Jeff Cannon, Tom Niccoli, Dan Borgida, Carl-
Michael Aoanan, Michael Owsiak, Mike Spear, Mike Leitner, Peter Caro, and
Loren Ryan with 129 games!

Promoted to A Tier:
Ryan McNeil, Steve Mueller, and (all working over 100 games), Jim Melrose,
Randy Venters, Ron Klamert, Lane Loland (122) and Paul Reynolds – 143 games!


Promoted to Tournament Tier:
Dennis Williams, Brian Tschumper, Hank Margeson, Greg Clarkson


We have several transfer umpires and they have been confirmed as: Gerritt Nelson
to B Tier, Kerry Clark to A Tier and Regina Boyd to A Tier.

Awards:
Henry VonJouanne and Corky Trewin asked us to join in their salute to two of our
honored umpires:
Tim Stevens was inducted into the WAO Hall of Fame.
Bob Matekel was selected as the WOA Baseball Official of the Year.

Tom Krause, President of PSSBL, presented the first-ever PSSBL Umpire of the
Year award to Pete Perry.

The George Eshleman Award for Service, Integrity and being a Valued Partner on
the Field was awarded to Terry Granillo.

Peyton presented the NBUA Coach of the Year to Chris Moedritzer, head baseball
coach of Garfield High School. He runs a respectful and talented program
throughout Garfield baseball.

Mark Clough, our valued assignor, named the 2022 Assignor Awards. These are
awarded to umpires who are “any game, anywhere”, and have minimal turn-backs.
They are hallmarks of dedication to our craft.
C Tier: Mike Leitner
B Tier: Paul Reynolds
A Tier: Paul Williams
T Tier: Mike McQuery

Corky acknowledged an umpire who emotes energy and friendliness and is our
best recruiter. Rick Park earned the 2022 Unsung Hero Award!

Dale Wilson asked Dean Corcoran, president of Washington Officials Association,
to receive the 2022 NBUA Customer of the Year Award for Unwavering Support
of Washington State’s Sports Officials.

The Brian Gooch Award is awarded for outstanding service to one’s fellow
umpires. Receiving the award was our long-time Director of Training: Henry
VonJouanne.

To all awardees: Congratulations and well deserved!

For your Board of Directors,
Peyton
Member Services

2021 NBUA Promotions

The 2021 NBUA promotions were announced at the Annual Banquet on Saturday night. Congratulations to those that got promoted and please acknowledge your fellow umpires that moved up.

Apprentice to C-Tier

Bloom, Casey

Cannon, Jeffrey

Caro, Peter

Castro, Christopher

Duke, Martin

Garcia, Cesar

Lee, Dominic

Leitner, Mike

McCoy, Mitchell

O’Rourke, Patrick

Owsiak, Michael

Peckham, Thomas

Ryan, Loren

C-Tier to B-Tier

Berg, Jeff

Green, Ryan

Kaye, Marc

Loland, Lane

Mueller, Steven

Reynolds, Paul

B-Tier to A-Tier

Keepers, John

Richardson, Dave

Trewin, Corky

A-Tier to Tournament

Olmsted, Greg

Rooney, Brian

Sweet, Brian

Wilson, Dale

3-Man Mechanics Made Easy

On the evening of April 20th, our own Bill Fitzgerald and others put on a video class on 3-man mechanics. If you find yourself assigned to a 3-man game this will be a useful review. You can find the link to the video here. You can follow along with your own copy of the power point presentation by downloading it here.

All of our 2021 training videos are available on our Training page under the Members section.

Advice: COVID Protocols and Assignment of Games

2021 NBUA COVID Protocols:

  • Members shall sign the Member Services Agreement before engaging in umpiring.
  • Umpires will not come to games if sick, sneezing, coughing, or running a temperature.  Umpires will not come to a game if they have been exposed to a person with COVID-19 within the past 14 days.
  • Adults 65 years and older and people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions are strongly encouraged to avoid large groups.
  • Umpires are required to always wear facial masks according to state and local guidelines.  
  • Umpires are not to handle baseballs.
  • Umpires are encouraged to ask for the middle copy of team lineup cards to reduce exposure.
  • Umpires are encouraged to bring a small bottle of hand sanitizer with them onto the field in case of accidental exposure.
  • Umpires shall maintain a 6-foot distance from their partners and coaches in the parking lot, at the plate meeting, during and after the contest.
  • If an umpire tests positive for COVID during the season, they MUST immediately report this to the Assignor.  Proper privacy regulations will be enforced.  That individual would need to quarantine according to local guidelines and would be ineligible to participate until cleared.
  • Upon learning of an umpire being exposed or testing positive of COVID-19, the NBUA will notify any partner they worked with as well as the teams participating in the games they worked. The NBUA will not release the name of the individual to anyone to ensure privacy.