Lack of baseball could cause future umpire shortage

For years the IHSA has been reaching out to the public to encourage more people to become officials.

Jeff Collis, the assignment supervisor for the Fox Valley Blues, said they have held numerous programs to recruit new officials.

And it worked. About 100 new umpires were scheduled to debut this spring.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those umpires have yet to get their chance, and the uncertainty going forward could cause big problems, Collis said.

"The thing I'm most concerned about going into 2021 is the umpire shortage this is going to cause if we don't play baseball," Collis said.

"A lot of effort went into this season. If we lose this year it's going to have a tremendous impact on officiating in 2021. We have an entire rookie class that essentially gets washed away."

Collis expects a large amount of those new umpires - and many of his veterans - to look elsewhere for part-time work.

"If this season gets washed out there's going to be a lot of guys who drop off because they had to find more permanent second jobs," Collis said. "They lost interest, for whatever reason. This whole situation is going to change a lot of different things."