Javier Penarroya addresses the attendees at this past weekend's umpire course.

UMPIRES OF THE FUTURE
2010-09-02

Argentina's women’s national team competed in this year’s ISF women’s world championship in Caracas, Venezuela. Shortly thereafter their junior counterparts participated in the III Pan American Softball Championship for Girls, clinching a berth in next year’s ISF IX Jr. Women’s World Championship. And the year after that Argentina will host the ISF IX Jr. Men’s World Championship (like the 2011 event, an age 19-and-under fast pitch tournament).

Quite an active softball country internationally, one would safely assume.

But to make sure they are well-rounded, the national softball efforts there are branching out to the umpires as well.

There is now a project in Argentina called "UMPIRES 2010-2015." It is an umpiring university, where those who started this year will graduate in 2015, with a path that will ultimately take them to umpire in the first division, with, of course, a thorough process to get there. This course is being held on the weekends, with his past weekend having been the beginning. Javier Penarroya, who umpired at the Olympic softball competition in Beijing in 2008, is focusing on local teaching within each regional affiliate.

Next month they will have an opportunity to get national certification, which will allow the umpires to participate at the national level in every tournament of the teams in Argentina. This second phase will be sponsored by the Argentina Softball Confederation and it is felt that this might be the most important project in the sport’s national history in terms of the umpiring.

Both the local and national programs will go on because of the need to increase the level across the country. The umpiring history in Argentina has always been very productive because the Argentinean umpires have had international participation in almost all finals in ISF tournaments, most of the time with very good results. Also, in the history of Argentinean umpiring, Mr. Penarroya is the only South American umpire who participated at the Olympic Games, so it’s felt that maybe this is the initial point to encourage those who are just starting their careers in this activity.

With the many results that Argentina’s softball athletes and administrators have been achieving, there’s no reason to doubt that their up-and-coming umpires will accomplish the same.