While travel fastpitch softball is growing, the pool of umpires is shrinking.
The past two weekends, Tim Foster hosted 315 teams for the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) state softball tournament. They used 29 fields at four Columbus and one Edinburgh venue.
About 100 umpires worked at least one of the two weekends of the tournament. Foster, who is the USSSA state director and Great Lakes Region director, said Columbus used to have 24 to 30 umpires. That number has dropped to about six.
Foster remembers hosting 70-team state tournaments and running them all in one weekend. Now, with more than 300 teams, he’s doing it over two weekends.
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“Our sport has grown so much, it’s even harder to find them,” Foster said of umpires to work the tournament games.
As a result, Foster brought in six umpires from Kentucky and two each from Tennessee, Illinois and Ohio. The rest came from all over Indiana. He paid nearly $5,000 for 27 hotel rooms for the umpires.
When Foster started umpiring in late 1980s, he earned $12 a game. The figure jumped to $27.50 for several years, he said. Then in the past five or six years, the average rate has increased to $40 per game.
As a director, Foster tries to treat his umpires right by paying for their lodging, feeding them and providing Gatorade and water for them at the games. The difference, he said, is in the poor way some fans treat them.
“There’s so many teams, and the sport has grown so much, a lot of people don’t understand the game,” Foster said. “When you have people following you to the parking lot and threatening you because their kid didn’t get a $5 trophy, they decide, ‘I don’t want to do this any more.’ They have other jobs, and they take vacation days to come and do this. The way they’re treated, it just gets old.”
Staying connected
Keisha Loweth was a standout softball player at Columbus East who went on to play at Olney Central College in Illinois, then at IUPUI.
When she got out of college, Loweth started umpiring on weekends. This is her 11th summer umpiring softball.
“When you go from playing every weekend to not playing at all, you miss being around the sport,” Loweth said. “I got into umpiring, one, to be around the sport, and two, for the extra cash.”
Now, Loweth umpires almost every weekend from March through July and September and November. She has worked indoor softball games some winters in Lafayette, but hasn’t done that the past few years.
The farthest Loweth usually travels now is Shelbyville or Indianapolis. She gets plenty of opportunities in Columbus.
“Since I’ve done it for so long, I’m working every weekend,” Loweth said. “I love the girls. It’s fun to watch them grow.”
Loweth umpires about about 20 games per weekend on the average. She has umpired mostly 10-and-under games, but has done a little 12U and 14U.
A few years ago, USSSA added an 8U division, and Loweth has umpired some of those games as well.
“I normally don’t have very many issues with the coaches,” Loweth said. “If they have questions, I let them ask. A lot of issues I have, if I do have them, are with fans of 8U. In 8U, you only have one umpire, so you have to see the whole field. You never know where the ball is going to go, so you have to get in position.”
Loweth has noticed coaches being more verbally aggressive nowadays than what they used to be.
“I had one issue this year where there was a rule change, and I didn’t hear about it,” Loweth said. “I had a coach come up and get in my face. I was wrong, but there’s really no need for someone to get into my face over something simple.”
Never too late to start
Andy Wingham officiates high school football, basketball and softball during the school year. In the summer, he umpires youth softball tournaments.
At 56, Wingham wants to officiate and umpire for another 10 years or so.
But sports officials such as Wingham are becoming more the exception than the rule. Athletics directors and tournament directors have told him a lot of officials and umpires his age are retiring, and younger ones aren’t signing up to replace them.
“They said it’s hard to get officials, and they’re worried about what’s going to happen in the next 10 years,” Wingham said. “The older guys are retiring and getting out of it, and there’s not as many younger kids coming in. That will be a factor and something they’ll have to deal with down the road a little ways, but it’s not that far away.”
Wingham was 50 when he began umpiring. The Columbus resident had played baseball and basketball at Hauser and had coached his three daughters in youth basketball and softball.
But after his daughters graduated, he wasn’t ready to leave the games behind.
“I’ve always been around sports, and I’ve always liked sports and when I turned 50, my girls were grown, and I still wanted to be around the game,” Wingham said.
When he started umpiring, Wingham was going to places such Shelbyville, Brownsburg, Indianapolis and Center Grove to do games. His wife Judy usually would pack him a cooler with food and drinks when he went on the road.
But now, Wingham works games mostly in Columbus. He has been at Lincoln Park the past three weekends.
“Columbus has great parks,” Wingham said. “The fields and ballparks are just outstanding. I like being close to home because on my breaks, I can run home if I want to.”
Wingham said he never dreamed when he was younger that he would become an official or umpire.
“Nobody wants to get yelled at, but you’re going to get yelled at whatever job you’re doing,” Wingham said. “There’s always somebody in the crowd that’s not going to like the official, but you always block that out. You just try to do as good a job as you can and be consistent.”
Wingham said a lot of times in the spring, he will umpire a varsity softball game, then do the JV right after it. In the summers he usually does 12 to 15 games a weekend — usually three on Friday nights, six on Saturdays and five or six on Sundays.
And for now, he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
“As long as I can keep moving, and I can still see and make good calls, then I’ll keep doing it,” Wingham said.
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Columbus will host the national USSSA softball tournament July 17 to 22. More than 200 teams will play at Lincoln Park, Ceraland, Clifty Park, Dunn Stadium and Edinburgh Softball Park.
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