Why High School Umpires Are Quitting And How Coaches Can Fix It

Last year, one state lost nearly a third of its umpires and not to retirement. They simply stopped showing up. I’m Coach Ken Carpenter, and I’m putting you in the plate shoes for a few minutes so you can feel what your local officials feel on a Tuesday afternoon after an eight-hour workday: the pressure, the noise, and the moments that decide whether a 19-year-old umpire ever comes back. 

From the umpire’s perspective, the fix is not complicated, but it does require leadership. I walk through how the home-plate meeting sets the tone for the entire game, why treating officials like coworkers changes the temperature instantly, and how the “ask don’t tell” principle helps you get clarity without turning a close call into a showdown. We also get practical about rule interpretation and when it’s smart to ask that a partner be consulted. 

Then we talk about the third team: the stands. In 2026, every parent has a camera and an opinion, but coaches are the only people with the credibility to shut down fence abuse before it drives young sports officials out for good. Finally, I bring it back to what matters most in high school baseball coaching and player development: your players are watching how you handle being wrong, how you handle authority, and how you handle adversity. That lesson lasts longer than any single call. 

If you want better games and more officials willing to work them, subscribe, share this with your staff and booster club, and leave a review so more coaches hear it. What’s one small change you’ll make at your next home-plate meeting?

Transcript

Umpires Are Disappearing

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Last year, your state lost nearly a third of its umpires. Not to retirement. They just stopped showing up. Tonight I'm going to tell you exactly why and what you can do about it before your next game. Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

This is the Ultimate High School Baseball Coaching Podcast. Baseball Coaches Unplugged, your go-to podcast for baseball coaching tips, drills, and player development strategies. From travel to high school and college, unlock expert coaching advice grounded in real success stories, data-backed training methods, and mental performance tools to elevate your team. Tune in for bite-sized coaching wisdom, situational drills, team culture building, great stories and proven strategies that turn good players into great athletes. The only podcast that showcases the best coaches from across the country. With your host, Coach Ken Carpenter.

A Tuesday Game In Blue

Why Officials Quit So Fast

Set The Tone At Home Plate

Ask Don’t Tell On Calls

Coaches Must Manage The Stands

Teach Kids Dignity Under Pressure

Share This With Your Program

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is powered by the Netting Professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. The netting professionals specialize in the design, fabrication, and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, BP turtle screens, ball carts, and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, and cubbies. The netting pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse, golf courses, and pickleball. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. Or you can visit them online at www.nettingpros.com. Check out Netting Pros on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Welcome back to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter, and I'm going to ask you to do something right now. Put down your lineup card, step away from the whiteboard, and just listen. It's 4 15 on Tuesday afternoon. The sun is setting right at the angle where it hits the bill of your cap like a personal insult. You've already put in eight hours at your day job. Maybe you're a contractor. Maybe you're a teacher. Maybe you drove 45 minutes just to get here. You're lacing up your plate shoes in the parking lot next to a kid who's doing the same thing. Nineteen years old, nervous. This might be his third or fourth varsity baseball game. You put on the chest protector, strap on the chin guards, and you drag the gear and a lifetime of love for the game out to home flight. Welcome, Dob. Welcome to my office. I'm not a coach tonight. I'm not a fan. I'm the one in blue. And in 2026, umpires are disappearing. Umpire registration numbers have been declining for two years, maybe even longer. Young officials are leaving after one or two seasons, not because the game is hard, but because the environment is. Abuse from the stands, coaches who treat a close play like a personal betrayal, players who've watched too many highlight reels of managers kicking dirt and think that that's what passion looks like. Looking back on my 27-year career as a high school head coach, I knew for a fact I was tough on umpires. My biggest gripes were if they didn't hustle, be in the right position, and made themselves the show. I probably went out too many times too on umpires to discuss calls that didn't go my way. My wife would ask me when I'd get home at night after a game, why did you argue that call tonight? It could have been for a variety of reasons, but I wanted them to be their best. And maybe that was their best. Prior to becoming a coach, I paid my way through college by officiating football, basketball, and baseball. I took pride in my job and was fortunate enough to umpire at the college level. Right or wrong, I had high expectations for those who were assigned to my games or to any varsity baseball game. So today I want to talk to you from the umpire's perspective. One, ground rules. As a coach, you set the tone. Everything starts at home plate. That two or three minute meeting before the first pitch, it's not a formality, it's a forecast. When you walk out there and look me in the eye and ask, genuinely ask, how's your season going? You know, use the umpire's name if you have it, or sir. You have just changed the entire atmosphere of the game. I don't need a firm handshake to prove you're a baseball man. I need 30 seconds that tells me this coach has his house in order. That tone is contagious. Your players are watching you from the dugout right now. The way you carry yourself towards me tells them exactly how to carry themselves when things get tight in the sixth inning. The best coaches I've worked with, the ones who make this job worth doing, treat me like a co-worker or on a shared project. Not a referee to be gamed, not an obstacle to be worn down, a co-worker. Try it once, just once. See what happens to the temperature of your game. Two, the ask don't tell principle. Now, a call is probably going to go against you tonight. I promise you that. Maybe it'll be a bang bang play at first, maybe it'll be a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded that I put on the corner and your cleanup hitter didn't agree with. How you come out of the dugout tells me everything. If you're sprinting out with your arms already going, I'm already done listening. I'm not wired to receive information that way, and neither are you. But if you come out calm, hands low, and you ask a question instead of delivering a verdict, we can have a conversation. Don't say he was safe, Blue. Come on. You know what you can say is, can you tell me what you had on that tag? Don't say the pitch has been off the plate all night. Say, hey, can you help me understand where you're setting up on the outside corner? You're not surrendering, you're communicating like a professional. And professionals get more information than people who are performing anger for an audience. If it's a rule interpretation question, all you can say is I want you to ask your partner. That's not a challenge to my authority, that's the system working. Use it. The moment you feel like a punching bag is the moment this becomes a transaction instead of a game. And transactions end and the games go on. Number three. The third team. And coaches, this one's on you. Let's talk about the fence. In 2026, every parent behind a chain link fence has a 4K slow motion camera, a group chat running, an opinion that's been marinating since the second inning. They think they have the best angle on the field, and they do not. They have an angle, but the umpire has the best angle. But here's the thing Umpires can't coach them. You can. When a parent starts riding my 19-year-old partner who's out here on a Tuesday night for 70 bucks because he loves the game and wants to give something back to it, and you look down at your pitching chart like you don't hear it, you've just told that parent it's acceptable. You've just told the kid in the blue shirt that this isn't worth it. And next spring he won't come back. Coaches, you're the only person on the field with the standing and the credibility to turn them around and address the stands. You don't have to be aggressive, you just have to be present. A simple firm, hey, we're good. Let's let him work. And that comes from the coaches, that goes a long way. Your voice carries weight in that direction. Use it. Because the parent who drives away a 19-year-old umpire tonight is the same parent whose kid has no official for his travel ball tournament in July. This is cause and effect, and you are the circuit breaker. Four. The kids are watching everything. I want to close with this because I think it's the part that we forget about when the lights are bright. These kids, your players, they're studying your right you right now. Not just your signals and your lineup decisions. They are studying how you handle being wrong, how you handle a bad break, how you handle a person in uniform who has authority over something you care deeply about. When you are going to call by performing outrage, arms out, cap spinning, voice carrying to the parking lot, you're teaching them that emotional theater is a substitute for accountability. That's a lesson they will carry into their jobs, their relationships, their lives. But when you come out, ask your question, get your answer, even an answer that you may not like, just tip your cap and walk back to the dugout. You just taught a kid one of the hardest things about being a human. How to lose with dignity. I'm gonna miss pitches tonight. Your stops, your short stop's going to boot a ball he makes 99 times out of a hundred. The beauty of this game, the reason it has outlasted every cultural shift for over a century, is that it's beautifully, painfully imperfect. It mirrors life in a way almost nothing else does. Don't coach against that, coach through it. I didn't get into the into this game for the money. Nobody in blue uniform does. I got into it because you love the sound of the bass of a fastball selling in the catcher's mitt, because I love the geometry of a perfectly turned double play, because I love watching a kid who struck out his first three at bats, dig in and barrel one up in the gap in the seventh. I love this game, and I need you to help me stay in it. Treat your umpires like the coworkers they are, manage your stands like the leaders you are, model resilience like the teacher you are. And let's make 2026 the season we stop losing good people to bad moments. That's the view from the mask. If that hit home for you, share it with every coach in your program. And honestly, send it to your booster club too. Because the best thing you can do for your program right now is help grow the next generation of officials. Until then, stay in the game. Baseball Coaches Unplugged was brought to you by the Netting Professionals Improving Programs, one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at www.nettingpros.com. Please be sure to tune in every Wednesday where I sit down with some of the best coaches from across the country. As always, I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches on Punk.