Our Association, Citrus Belt Baseball Umpires Association, only books high school baseball, but we cover Polk, Hardee, and Highlands Counties.  We have approximately 55 members, and we book in excess of 600 high school ball games a year.

To get started in high school baseball, the best way is to follow the procedures outlined on the Florida High School Activities Association webpage:  http://www.becomeanofficial.org.

If you sign up with them and put CBBUA as your association, you will be able to work high school baseball games through the Association.  They will send all of the required booklets and information to CBBUA, and we will distribute them at our meetings.  You cannot work Florida high school baseball if you do not belong to a FHSAA certified association.

This website, www.cbua.org will be updated on an as-needed basis, and it will let you know where and when we will hold our meetings and clinics, along with other important dates.

The FHSAA also requires everyone to be fingerprinted due to the "Jessica Lunsford Act."  The webpage for instructions (for Polk County) on how to do that is:

http://www.polk-fl.net/community/doingbusinesswithus/documents/JLAFeeSchedule_09.pdf

Some of our members also book youth baseball and American Legion baseball during the rest of the year.  If you are interested in working youth baseball or American Legion baseball, please let Jon Clayton know and he will forward your information to the proper people.

If you are interested in working college baseball, the person to contact is Dennis McComb at 386-748-7137 or John Magnusson at 352-538-2954 with Florida Collegiate Umpires/.  Their website is:  www.Floridacollegiateumpires.com for more information.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the officers listed below.  They will try to help in any way they can.  We think you will find that umpiring is a great way to stay connected to the sport of baseball and is a rewarding avocation.