Sticking with the sport
Whether they wear striped shirts or umpire blue, officials who enforce the rules of the game are usually at the mercy of fans, coaches and players. But it is a occupational hazard that both Merri Taylor and Larry Snyder have endured for more than seven decades combined as a way to stay involved in the games they love.
Taylor has been an umpire for women’s softball for 28 years and is now the coordinator for the Big Ten, Horizon, Summit and Missouri Valley conferences. She umpired Indiana high school state finals in 1991 and 1992. She has also run summer programs for children from eight years old to college age.
Taylor first played softball at age 11 and received a scholarship for softball and basketball to attend IUPUI. After graduation, she continued to play semi-pro softball until she had children. She then began to umpire more. She said she wanted to "stay with the fast-pitch game."
To become an umpire, a person must acquire an officiating license, which costs a small fee. Then they must go to clinics and schools to learn positions, as well as take an open book test after reading the manual.
"The more experience, the more you move up," Taylor said.
Taylor moved up to the Big Ten after umpiring at the high school level for five years.
The Big Ten is "very prestigious to get into around here," Taylor said.
As coordinator, Taylor gives advice to high school umpires who come to work in college conferences. Taylor tells the new umpires they need be thick-skinned to be in this line of work. "They can’t have rabbit ears," Taylor said.
Taylor told a story about a coach of a 12- to 14-year-old girls’ softball team that was known to yell at parents, umpires and his players. She volunteered to umpire the game because no one wanted to due to the coach’s hot-headed nature. When he started to yell at her, she said to him, "Coach, this game is for the girls, not for you."
Larry Snyder has been a football referee for 49 years and is now the HCAC football officials coordinator, along with four other schools including Marian College, DePauw University, St. Francis College and Taylor University.
"Even though I’m not on a field [anymore], I’m heavily involved," Snyder said.
For Snyder, becoming a referee was a way to stay involved because he said he was not good enough to play at the college level.
Snyder first worked junior high games and soon became a division I level official. The process to become a football official is similar to the process to become a softball umpire. A person must obtain a state certification, attend a certain number of local official’s meetings and pass a state test.
Both Snyder and Taylor said the friendships developed with fellow officials is a major benefit to their career. Snyder said that the coaches and fans getting on you, as well as not officiating as well as a person might hope, are negatives to the career.
