Friday, January 9, 2004

Longtime NBUA umpire Leamer retires

By Gary Coy
Contributing Editor

After more than twenty seasons, college umpire Jerry Leamer has decided to officially retire from active umpiring. Jerry will continue to serve as a PAC 10 Conference evaluator and observer. In an interview, Jerry reflected on his umpiring career.

"When I began umpiring in 1981, I knew it would not be forever. I have gone further, umpired a lot more important games, and had more fun that I could have ever imagined. The time has come, however to step aside and let someone else in on the action. During the last year, I have had a lot of time to think over a lot of things and I realized that, yes, there is life beyond the white lines. What I will miss, is the comraderie with all you guys. The NBUA is very special to me and I just hope that I have helped young umpires get started and I hope that I have been a positive influence on their umpiring. I have always said that I would hope that I would know when the time arrive for me to stop. I feel that the time has now come."

For those that have worked with Jerry over the years, he will always be remembered for his "game presence" on the field. He always treated each game as if was the most important game, no matter if was a division one PAC 10 game or a Sandy Koufax game. He brought his "A" game each time. Something we should all strive to do.