With Jen Pawol becoming the first woman to umpire an MLB game, we want to introduce you to the Next-Jen of umpires

When Jen Pawol becames the first woman to umpire an MLB game this past weekend, lots of young umpires were watching, including graduates from our Official Leadership Program which Jen helped us develop.

Here’s what Claire Baker, a 16-year-old graduate from Detroit, had to say: “When I first saw the news I was super excited. As someone who’s been playing baseball for over half their life and as someone who’s experienced some difficult situations being a girl, as a player and as an umpire, it just brought me a lot of joy and a lot of hope. Even just knowing that there’s someone who’s most likely gone through a lot of the same struggles that I had, and they’ve seen success, means a lot to me. It’s helping pave a new path for women in baseball, whether they’re fans, players, coaches, or officials. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes!” (Read more about Claire’s experience in the Official Leadership Program in Detroit HERE)

Since our program’s inception, more than 700 teens have graduated from our Official Leadership Program. This week alone, we had students taking the course in Des Moines, Iowa, and in our first-ever summer camp in Chicago. We added the summer camp because we had so many teens register for the initial course there, and we didn’t have the space to accommodate everyone in the winter! Many of these graduates are now paid umpires in their community.

Here’s a great TV SEGMENT from WHO13 about our program in Iowa, where we are continuing the legacy of MLB Umpire Eric Cooper and training young umpires in his hometown of Des Moines.

Many MLB Umpires have taken time out to meet with the students at games across the country, answering students’ questions on big-league fields and inspiring them to follow in their plate shoes.

So today, as we congratulate Jen for her milestone moment, we also wanted to thank all of our umpires for helping us develop the next generation of umpires and leaders!

Special thanks to Major League Baseball, the MLBUA, the Major League Baseball Youth Development Foundation, Ump Attire, Gatorade, the LA84 Foundation, NASO and Referee magazine, the Pedro Gomez Foundation, Evolve2Excellence, Friends and Family of Eric Cooper, Whataburger, Out West Officials, Griffith Foods, Officials Depot, the Iowa Foundation, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, our club partners and local instructors and assignors and our donors for making this program possible.

Know a teen who might want to register for our Official Leadership Program?

Register for our FREE upcoming 6-week course in Seattle and clinics in Kansas City and Minnesota!