The NCAA News - News & Features

Yeast appointed national umpire coordinator

Dave Yeast, supervisor of umpires for Conference USA and a former supervisor of umpires for the Missouri Valley Conference and the Metro Conference, was named as the program's second national coordinator.

As a college baseball umpire, Yeast has worked Division I baseball competition since 1982, including the College World Series in 1991 and 1995, and 10 Division I regional competitions. In addition, he umpired the baseball competition at the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta.

Yeast succeeds Jon Bible, who resigned from the position in July after six years as the first national coordinator.

As the new national coordinator, Yeast will manage a restructured program that will include four national umpire evaluators and 29 advisory committee members. The advisory committee members will be named by the 29 Division I baseball conferences that receive automatic qualification to the Division I Baseball Championship.

The national umpire evaluators will work with the advisory committee members in an effort to evaluate Group I and Group II umpires, as well as to identify and evaluate new conference umpires that can work at the Division I championship level.

Following is the list of national umpire evaluators and the conferences for which they are responsible:

* Wade Ford, Round Rock, Texas: Pacific-10, Western Athletic, West Coast Athletic, Big West, Southland, Conference USA and Southwestern Athletic.

* Scott Graham, West Chester, Pennsylvania: Big East, Ivy Group, Atlantic-10, Patriot League, Metro Atlantic Athletic, American East and Northeast.

* Dick Runchey, Plymouth, Michigan: Big Ten, Big 12, Mid-American Athletic, Midwestern Collegiate, Mid-Continent, Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley.

* Tony Thompson, Snellville, Georgia: Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Southern, Colonial Athletic, Trans America Athletic, Mid-Eastern Athletic, Sun Belt and Big South.

The NCAA National Umpire Program is under the direction and supervision of the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee and the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee. The chairs of the committees serve as the administrators of the program, with assistance provided by the secretary-rules editor of the rules committee.

The mission of the program is to support, encourage and improve the quality of umpiring at the intercollegiate level; to evaluate Group I and Group II NCAA umpires and identify prospective NCAA umpires; to select umpires for the Division I regionals and the College World Series; to promote better communication between umpires, coaches and the NCAA; and to provide consistency in the interpretation of NCAA baseball rules and umpiring mechanics.