Similar problem at Wayville with at least 4 games having only one ref. However, games shouldn't have been called off. Each club should have provided someone to referee as it states in the by-laws. But I guess non of those parents who referee from the sidelines have the guts to get a whistle and help out to see their kids play basketball.

One of the viewers in our house wants to inform you that the young umpire set are sick of the abuse(some D/H spectator was warned yesterday for instance) and the other limiter is the Year12 exams are close or started.

If are you are still reading ,do you know some of the new rules?The crap thrown at Umpys wil elevate this season because of the ignoramuses dont do their "Homework".

I can tell you my sons experience; He is 15 years old. He had umpired for approx 2 years. In his time he had umpired regular junior district games, a few country carnivals, social games and a number of U18 & U20 games. He enjoyed the challenge and the extra spending money it gave him. He also met and became freinds with many new people he never normally would have met. He was graded well by his UIC and that was why he was able to be trusted to handle games that were way above his age level.

He has now turned his back on umpiring because of the recent changes that have been made to the system.

At the start of last season, or maybe the season before, he was asked to nomintae 2 or 3 stadiums that he could umpire at. He was then told that if he was available he would have to email the Umpires office a week before to say he was available. He did not have a say in what one of the 3 stadiums he was going to be sent too, or what times he would be rostered onto.

My son plays Div 1 for a district club so he was happy to umpire before or after his own matches at his home stadium. On some occasions he was asked to umpire before or after his game at another stadium that is close by when his team was playing there. This he happily did; he only ever refused an umpiring gig when he was injured or had another commitment.

This worked great. My son was able to play and umpire almost every friday night and put his hand up for most Saturday mornings at his home stadium.

With the new system he has thrown in the towel because it is to hard to organise and plan transport arrangements while playing at one stadium and umpiring at another. He gave the new system a try for the 1st 4 weeks. He went from umpiring every week, to umpiring once in four weeks.

We now keep getting a bill for a $25 umpire registration fee. We had never had this bill before the "new" changes were made.

I understand what they have tried to do; however what they have done is turn off a large amount of current players from umpiring. These kids needed to umpire when it was handy and convinient for them, not the other way around.

The last year my son umpired a full season he was even considering if he could make a living out of umpiring at an elite level. He now has lost interest completly.

Abuse did not worry him; the small pay did not worry him; it was not being able to choose when and where he played that has lost him to umpiring.

I have been involved with district Bball now for over 15 years.

In that time I cannot think of a major incident that has stemmed from a junior ump being biased. Sure, we all winge and moan about home court umps not calling a foul or travel; however it is not game changing. When you have a child umpiring you all of a sudden become very aware of how "petty" some small minded spectators can be.

I know that the junior umps work very at calling from an unbiased position despite what club they play for, but hey...the question was asked and I can answer it from my point of view.

The current system is inflexable and has lost a junior that was interested in taking it further.

The question was asked, & I have answered it from "my point of view". I don't need to ring them; I don't need to keep it in house; they made changes to a system that worked for my son resulting in a system that was really bad for my son.

I think that if they are going to make changes to a system that accommodates 12-15 yo kids you had better try make the system as easy as it can be.

The horse has bolted now; my son is fully into fitness and his district team, while working for a company during the weekend that makes allowances for his sporting commitments.

back to the original question; Where are all the Umpires?

Seeing as you have already contributed to the topic, do you have any answers?