Council considers how to recruit summer ball umpires

Dangle a bigger carrot, Marc Burggraff urged the Flandreau City Council during their recent meeting, as members grappled with what to do about a shortage of umpires for youth softball and baseball over the summer.
The conversation came up after Emma Peters, the summer recreation director, asked for a section of her job description to be removed, in hopes of improving stability in the position. As part of her end-of-season check-in, this request was one of the big talking points.
In the past, that role has cycled through people frustrated by having to scramble at the last minute to find umpires for games all summer long especially for youth games. Sometimes there simply arent enough resources to fill those spots at all.
Part of the problem, Peters and others acknowledged, is finding people willing to be umpires when they often take heat from coaches, players, and parents. Burggraff said theres more to it.
They dont get paid enough, he told council members. He pointed out that for little-league and 12U games, someone behind the plate gets just $25 per game, and base umpires $15, for games that last about an hour and a half.
Youre not solving the problem by eliminating that role from the Summer Rec Directors position, he said.
Councilors agreed. Umpiring is demanding, the pay is low, and theres a lot of scrutiny.
Of course, every parents child is going to be a major league player and therefore you expect that ump to be perfect sometimes kids just are kids and parents and coaches need to be patient with the umps, Mayor Dan Sutton said.
City Administrator Cohl Turnquist noted that the job description for the summer rec director hasnt been updated since 2012. That pushes the question: should the responsibility of coordinating umpires for league ball remain part of that position?
Alderman Yeaton asked whether that change would also mean a decline in the base pay for the director. He also suggested maybe the baseball association should offer a clinic or training for umpires perhaps even for parents/coaches to help everyone understand how to react, especially when someone is new to the role and unprepared for the pressure.
If were worried about kids getting yelled at is that something we should put on, or challenge the baseball association maybe they should put on some sort of clinic teaching how to umpire, instructing kids on how to react Im sure if you get thrown in there and youve never done it, it can be overwhelming at every level in every sport, youre going to have parents who are poor sports and yelling at refs I know Ive seen it plenty of times, Yeaton said.
The council plans to revisit the matter at a future meeting. Between now and then, Turnquist will work with the baseball association to try to find solutions.
Leaving the job description as it is, Turnquist warned, is not really an option. We are burning out summer rec directors to leave it the same.