However, the umpire shortage is severe. I’ve seen numerous varsity games with only 1 umpire in the last few years. I’ve also been told by my conference assignor that umps who should still be on JV are moved up to varsity because there is simply no one else. The majority of the umps now are old, and there’s no one signing up to replace them.
I always held that stance that good teams don’t need every call to go their way to win games. The umps are trying their best. Sometimes their best sucks. Adjust to the zone (on both sides of the ball), control what you can control. Screaming at the ump solves nothing. You can call time and go talk to the umpire without making a scene. My fellow conference coaches used to always say calls went my way because I was a woman. They conveniently ignored that I was the only coach that didn’t constantly chirp at the umpires. The current state of umpires for high school is bad. Parents (and coaches) are crazy. Umpires make like 40-70$ a game, and don’t get paid for rainouts. I wouldn’t want to put up with the nonsense for that amount either. So you can choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution.
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