Umpires Jeffrey Wellner and Larry Fisher (in blue) meet with, from left, Columbus East coach Rusty Brummett and captain Kenzie Foster and Hauser coach Andy Brunner and captain Hannah Taylor at home plate prior to Wednesday’s softball game at East High School.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
Last month, a youth baseball coach in Texas shoved an umpire to the ground after being thrown out of a game.
Around that same time, a woman in Mississippi punched a female softball umpire, giving her a black eye.
While those physically violent incidents may be isolated, they may be driving umpires, referees and other athletic officials from their sports. At the least, they’ve been somewhat of a deterrent to a new, younger generation giving umpiring, refereeing or officiating a try.
“Our fans at Columbus East have been very good this year, knowing that the umpires are doing the best they can, and that there’s a shortage,” East athletics director Pete Huse said. “So I’ve been very pleased with how our fans have understood and just not made the situation any worse.”
Columbus North athletics director Brian Lewis has noticed the same level of decorum from Bull Dog fans.
“We haven’t had any issues with fans getting outrageous or doing something with disrespect to them,” Lewis said. “For the most part, our parents and spectators are always respectful to the umpires.”
Sandra Walter, who oversees contest officials for the IHSAA, said that while she has not heard of any physical type of attacks happening in Indiana high school sports in recent years, she isn’t thrilled with the growing number of adults who have been thrown out of games.
“While unsporting reports are high, I am reporting our numbers to the board this week, and we do intend to address that,” Walter said. “We’ll deal with the behavior of student-athletes and mold them. The concern is, the ejection of fans and the ejection of coaches is more than we would like.”
So, too, is a concern among coaches, players, parents and athletics directors that not enough umpires will be available to call games. Some schools in the Indianapolis area have had to cancel or postpone games from a lack of available umpires.
So far, that scenario hasn’t affected Columbus teams.
“Last year was an issue because of COVID, but we’ve been lucky to find officials for all of our games this year,” Lewis said. “Everybody is going through the same thing, but we haven’t had any issues this year.”
Huse said East has played some freshman and JV baseball games with only one umpire, but so far, hasn’t had to cancel any varsity or JV softball games because of a lack of umpires.
“We’ve just been lucky that we haven’t had to do it yet,” Huse said. “We’ve been very fortunate.”
Walter said this year, the shortage of umpires has been as bad as anytime since she’s been in charge of officials. But she said some former coaches have gotten their licenses.
“Some of our umpires are former coaches who stepped up,” Walter said. “We’ve seen a larger need. They are turning to those people who have an extensive background in the sport. They are stepping up and volunteering to be a part of the solution.”
Schools are stepping up to become part of the solution. Officiating 101 classes have been implemented into a curricular day for kids at 18 high schools around the state.
A total of 252 students have signed up to become licensed officials. Another 140 are in pilot programs.
“There’s opportunity as a high school student to work those Saturday morning Pop Warner Leagues,” Walter said. “The employability component is high with those kids.”
Walter said anyone who passes a background check and passes a 100-question exam in an online application can become a licensed official.
“To gain an initial license is quite simple,” Walter said. “The program for baseball and softball umpires was earlier this spring. We’ve hooked them up with the basics. Many of these new umpires don’t work a varsity game, but they work freshman, JV games, and that frees up our varsity umpires from having to work lower level games.”
License renewal for next year and the application for new officials for the 2022-23 school year is under way. Walter, who is leaving the IHSAA at the end of the school year to take the athletics director job at Franklin Central, is hopeful that the pipeline of umpires, referees and officials can be replenished for whoever succeeds her in her role with the state’s sports governing agency.
“Our numbers are looking good,” Walter said. “We hope more than those that we recruited are coming back.”
