JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An umpire shortage is impacting the Duval County School District’s athletic games.
A Landon Middle School parent reached out to First Coast News and said three of her child's softball games were cancelled because there was no umpire.
The Jacksonville Umpire's Association said the games will be rescheduled and added the cancellations are part of a bigger problem.
"We're doing everything we can, you know, I send out emails probably a couple times a week saying hey, can you help us out this day? If you're, you know, not shown as available? Can you make yourself available just for a couple hours?" Randy Olhausen said.
Olhausen is in charge of staffing dozens of softball and baseball games across Northeast Florida, including Duval County Public Schools' games.
"We don't have enough officials, we're putting one official in some games sometimes, and just not the best thing to be doing," he said.
Olhausen has 150 umpires in his system, but said he needs at least 50 more.
The shortage has forced games, such as the Landon Middle School softball games, to be cancelled.
Olhausen says he is working with DCPS to shift games around so they can be staffed.
A temporary solution.
“I lose a lot of people because of the way umpires are treated. I've been threatened before, you know, meet you in the parking lot,"
“Umpiring is a hard task to do," Tony Daniels said.
Daniels was watching his son and First Coast High School play Englewood in the Gateway Conference Tournament.
He thinks there is a solution to the problem.
“We do have some First Coast kids, play on the baseball team, that are actually umpiring little league games and stuff like that, so to get more experienced, so hopefully, after their playing days are over, they can come back and contribute to the sport that they love that got them where they are today," Daniels said.
Olhausen said he is hosting training session monthly to recruit more umpires.
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