Do I need experience before I come to school?
No. We assume that when you arrive, you have no umpiring knowledge or experience. Regardless of your experience level, we start everyone from the basics on the first day. Sometimes, extensive experience can even lead to established bad habits that must be broken first. With limited, or no, experience, you will not have these bad habits to break before learning the "Wendelstedt Way.”
How big is your class?
Our class size varies from year to year. Though our class size usually remains around 100 students, we will not know our class size until Registration Day because some enrolled students are unable to report for various reasons, and some students register the last couple of days before the start of school.
How many jobs are available?
We are not informed of the number of placements available until the first week of February. This number usually ranges between 25 and 35, and we also send an additional 10 on a reserve list. These students are selected throughout the year as positions become available due to injuries and promotions.
What are the requirements to attend?
Except for the minimum age requirement of 18, there are no other restrictions based on age, race, gender, or aspirations. There are some minimal physical requirements in order to participate in umpire activities, and also required paperwork that must be submitted. All of this information and more can be found on our requirements page.
What is your student-to-instructor ratio?
The ratio varies based on class size and instructors in attendance, however, we have 37 staff members, 16 of them Major League umpires. We usually have about 100 students attend every year. Our staff size is determined by the expected number of enrollees, however, we try to keep the ratio below 6:1. Click here to see the umpire instructors you may be working with while in attendance.
What separates your program from others?
We are the only independently run professional umpire training program recognized by Minor League and Major League Baseball. Our program is distinguished by our curriculum, our staff, and our campus facilities.
Our school offers you the best opportunity to excel in baseball through our unique presentation and exclusive teaching methods that includes demonstrations, drills, cage instruction, control situations, and camp games. Additionally, we are the only program that offers live games played by high school and college teams to give our students important real-game experience before moving into professional baseball.
Our staff is the most qualified and experienced staff ever compiled. While we provide you instructors from all levels of the Minor Leagues, nothing can compare to the value added by the instruction of a 30+ year MLB veteran.
Our facilities are the best of the best. Located right on Daytona Beach, the lodging for the school provides students with a relaxing and enjoyable experience during their personal time. The newly constructed field house eliminates any commuting from the classroom to the professionally designed and maintained field complex.
We are the only program that offers students full uniforms in the Umpire Package, including professional style uniform shirts, poly-spandex pants, and zip-off sleeve windbreaker.