ST. PAUL – During the 2023 Baseball Alberta Awards in Edmonton on Nov. 24, numerous individuals were handed awards, including St. Paul’s own Brandon Strocki, who won the President’s Award.
The President’s Award is presented to a Baseball Alberta board member for their outstanding service to Baseball Alberta. Strocki is the Provincial Supervisor of Umpires, the chair of Umpire Committee, as well as the liaison for Baseball Alberta’s board of directors.
He was given the award for the work he’s done to boost the umpire program across the province, helping it see “tremendous growth over the last couple of years.” He's helped create training initiatives for umpires in the province, for example.
After pandemic restrictions were lifted, Strocki said the Umpire Committee found a huge deficit of umpires in Alberta.
“So, we put a lot of time and effort into trying to promote recruitment throughout,” he explains.
It’s nice to see that hard work pay off, adds Strocki, noting, “It’s nice to see we reached the 1,000-umpire mark for the first time ever in 2023.” Prior to the pandemic, he said there about 900 umpires in the province in 2019, and those numbers dipped to 500 in 2021, then increased to 800 in 2022.
“That’s a huge milestone. [But] it’s still never enough,” said Strocki with a laugh. “We’re always short for umpires all the time, and that’s an ongoing battle.”
Development and training initiatives by the Umpire Committee, specifically in 2023, included 10 new umpire course conductors who taught Level 1 and 2 Umpire courses, says Strocki. New senior course conductors, who can evaluate national champions, have also been certified.
The 2024 Baseball Alberta Umpire Academy was also created as one of Baseball Alberta’s initiatives that targets “younger 16- to 20-year-old umpires,” who want to continue their development as umpires. “It’s going to be really exciting to see the roll-out,” he says.
Strocki thanked Jon Oko, who currently sits as the president of the board of Baseball Alberta for the award. Oko was also the former Provincial Supervisor Umpire from 2003 to 2017, before Strocki took over in 2018.
Strocki sats the President’s Award is a nice token of appreciation. “But, really, it’s a reflection of the whole Umpire Committee.” For Oko to recognize the work, significance, and the importance of umpires, Strocki is thankful.
“The nine of us are a dedicated group of volunteers who put a lot of time and effort into trying to promote, develop and roll out the umpire program in baseball for the whole province.” Without the entirety of the Umpire Committee, “We wouldn’t be as successful,” says Strocki.
Strocki is also a high school teacher at St. Paul Regional High School, teaching Physical Education, Social Studies and Sports Performance. He has been living in St. Paul for 10 years, and “I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of really good people and got involved in the sports world of the St. Paul area and community.”
Strocki's involvement in sports also includes being a coach for a variety of high school sports like basketball, volleyball, and track and field at Regional High School, in addition to being a baseball umpire.
Before he became an umpire, Strocki played baseball throughout much of his life, and in 2013, he played in the 2013 National Senior Men’s Baseball Championship with the Parkland Whitesox out of Spruce Grove. He recalled playing against former Toronto Blue Jays outfielder, Matt Stairs, who was playing with New Brunswick after retirement.
As an umpire, Strocki has been to two National Senior Men’s competitions since. He says he has had “way more opportunities” in baseball as an umpire than when he played.
For people wanting to become baseball umpires, they can watch out for registrations of the 2024 NUCP (National Umpire Certification Program) Clinic. The NUCP Clinic is being held annually to develop umpires, and clinics include all five NUCP level certifications.
