Presidents Message

Fellow Officials,

As I was re-reading my past messages, I noticed I hadn’t properly called out one of the guys who makes all of this happen. When you read Blue Crew News or go to the NVBUA website, you see the work of many people, including Jim Clayton. Jim is a former president who I have relied on this past year, along with other former presidents such as Jerry Park and Dave Diesselhorst in order to put perspective into some of the issues I have had to face.

As I said earlier this year, one of my main goals this year was to improve communications between the board and the members. I think we have achieved that goal, thanks in no small part to Jim Clayton, who, by the way, is a pretty good umpire as well. This past summer, Jim was U1 in the American Legion World Series Championship game.

Of course, Jim’s not the only person going over and above. This past Labor Day, I was at Langley High School doing training with new officials and some of our veteran trainers. They brought the Trackman system for the instructors and the Hack-Attack pitching machine, which uses an additional wheel to simulate different kinds of pitches. Kudos to those guys, and to the lead trainer, Paul Porto, who always has coffee and bagels for the trainers.

Speaking of training, we have a group of folks who are getting on the field in selected travel games to work three-man. Right now, these are by-invite only, but if you are interested in getting more three-man reps in, let me know and I’ll speak to the assignors. I want to caution you; however, that the fees for some three-man games are lower than normal two-man travel or adult league games.

The simple fact is that lots of things are happening all the time these days. To get in on the fun, reach out. Some of us are crazy busy with volleyball, and some of us need a break from the summer, but fall is a great time of year to sharpen your game without the glare of high school or tournament action. Keep an eye out for the message about Trackman, the camps that are coming up and other opportunities that are out there to improve.

Two additional reminders. First, if anyone needs a VHSL patch, I have a supply of them. Reach out and we can coordinate how you can get them. Additionally, for anyone who passed the VHSL test with at least an 85% score last March, I have passes that can get you into any VHSL event. Again, please reach out if you would like one of these.

Finally, just a reminder that the UmpsCare charity golf tournament is Monday, October 13th and that we will have an umpire-invited happy hour the night before. I will be sending one more reminder out with a few details in the near future. That’s it for me.

Enjoy the fall season; see you next month.

Dave Maher