This coming weekend (March 7-9) will be the beginning of the Seattle High School baseball season. It starts with jamborees and then gets down to playing games that count next week. This is also, generally, the end of the training season for our new NBUA umpire class. Our apprentices have spent the past 6 weeks working hard to learn the rules and the mechanics that will let them succeed on the field.

We are always on the lookout for new recruits to bring into our umpiring community and when people start to see kids out on the fields playing games we often get a flood of applicants through our site. Unfortunately, because our training season is over, many are simply too late to get them on the fields. Unless you have prior experience through the NBUA or a similar organization elsewhere in the country, we simply can’t take the time away from game play to train the late comers. Our customers expect a certain level of competence from us and we can’t sacrifice that even though we are continually shorthanded.

However, if you are looking to get on the field as an official, do not despair. If you apply with us, we will keep your name on a list and make sure to call you next year before our training season starts again. In the meantime, your local Little League or PONY League usually has a program starting about now to bring new umpires into some very junior level contests for the youngest players. Experience in those games will be a boon to your neighborhood and good practice for you going forward into our more advanced levels of play in years to come.