It may be these kids’ greatest tri-ump.
America’s officiating shortage and crisis in youth sports is hitting home on Long Island, but a few dozen teens are stepping up to, or rather behind, the plate by learning umpiring to make sure their peers can properly play ball this spring.
“I always loved playing Little League, so giving back to that is also a big benefit of this,” 16-year-old Brandon Charles told The Post.
He’s one of about 35 teens in the Bellmore-Merrick school system who signed up for a six-week crash course with UmpsCare to get certified for the 2026 baseball season, which needs officiating staff now more than ever.
The scarcity is so dire that middle school teams typically have to scrimmage rather than play a real game, and high school JV teams are fortunate to have just one body behind the plate, according to longtime umpire Mike Herring.
“It’s hurting the kids with their development,” said the man who’s been making calls from Little League to professional levels for 25 years.
“They’re not getting a real game experience,” he said.
Answering the call
Herring now spends his Monday nights teaching the next generation of officials — ages 13-18 — to make the game better for everybody involved.
Bellmore-Merrick is the only district on Long Island running the program, and UmpsCare hopes to expand across Nassau and Suffolk counties after seeing immediate success on the south shore.
Beyond running basic drills on calling balls and strikes, Herring and his team prep the kids to be independent financial contractors and to hone their craft in front of a crowd.
“Getting them to be very confident is half the battle,” said Herring, who does an exercise just on projecting strike three calls.
“If you can look confident out there, you’re going to get less stuff from parents or players.”
Seeing the game from a neutral stance only made Charles appreciate “an added dimension of baseball” even more.
He had been watching spring training this year not only to see how the players performed but also how the umps performed.
Charles said he was able to spot several moments when a pitch appeared to be a strike on TV, but thanks to class, he could tell it was dimensionally out of the zone.
“I understand how much umpires have value to baseball,” he said, “and that it’s OK to make a bad call if you just focus on getting the next one right.”
Umps and downs
Handling entitled and abusive parents, which Herring said is the leading factor in why officials have been quitting the business across the U.S. the past decade, is a core piece of the UmpsCare classes.
Ryan Ruisi remembers those ugly moments from his own Little League days all too well, sadly, and it’s a reason he’s becoming an ump.
“Parents yelling at umpires, it happens almost every game,” recalled the high school sophomore.
“Sometimes it gets extreme to saying, ‘Meet me in the parking lot,’ ” added Ruisi, who’s heard threats like that “multiple times.”
Senior Matthew Malerba agreed, saying, “It takes some courage because the parents can be rough.”
Herring hopes that hot-headed families and fans will stop treating their neighborhood ball fields like the Yankee Stadium bleachers when they see teens around their own kids’ ages calling the games.
If not, that’s why the program teaches how to manage rowdy moms and dads.
“Be respectful when talking to parents. Explain yourself … and try to de-escalate situations,” said Charles.
The kids and Herring agree that conflict resolution is still a handy life skill, and that if you can pull it off with a fuming parent at a baseball game, you can do it in just about any situation in life.
The longtime umpire wants the new game callers to stick with officiating and not only help resolve the ongoing shortage, but also see their own day in the big leagues.
“You have to go up the ranks from college to Single-A, Double-A, Triple-A, and then the majors. It’s the same thing here,” he said.
“Just like any baseball organization, it’s a farm system.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
