We're getting ready to begin our Umpire Training & Certification program and we need your help. In order to make this process work, we need to conduct these training sessions at various parks. Therefore, we would like have some of these sessions at your playing facility if at all possible.

The training clinics are going to be conducted on Saturdays and Sundays starting on March 18 and scheduled to conclude on or about July 22. The first session will be at Silver Lakes Park in Miramar. I can have all of the scheduled clinics at Silver Lakes Park, but it would not be convenient or fair to have the umpires from W. Boynton, Palm Beach or Homestead travel that far if we can have the clinics in their own back yard. We need you to help us out if you can.

The Umpire Training & Certification program is a significant milestone in creating a solid foundation for our baseball program. As managers, with your years of experience being passed on to your players, it stands to reason that the “third team” on the field is equally as trained. Florida Premier Sports / USSSA has entered an agreement with ADVANCEMENT of UMPIRES to provide the comprehensive training for those umpires that must earn the right to be considered to be assigned to your games.

ADVANCEMENT of UMPIRES was founded and is managed by Ron Russo, an active baseball umpire now in his 38^th season. Ron has completed his second year as an umpire in professional ball and has been a D-II and D-I umpire since 1995. Having trained baseball umpires since 1979, many of his past students are currently working at the D-II, D-I and professional levels.

This Umpire Training & Certification program will be for all of us to enjoy and benefit from. Through this program we will have a system in place where the pay scale will be uniform and when doing league games and USSSA Sanctioned tournaments, ONLY FPS / USSSA umpires will be used. Currently there is NO uniform system or set of standards in the league when it comes to the umpires and their verifiable knowledge. We want and need to change that.

The current USSSA umpiring program is done online without any field or classroom training. I am confident that with the 18 to 20 hours of classroom and field training, we will have the much improved level of umpiring that our league needs and deserves.

Within the next few days, I will have all the details regarding how to sign-up, the cost and where the training classes will be conducted.

Again, If your facility is available on either Saturday or Sunday from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., or even from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., please let me know as soon as possible. Please, provide this information to your Chief Umpire and let them know, that they will have to attend these classes, despite the fact that they may already be USSSA certified.