Competency, not gender, counts for umps. By Tony Sousa

As umpire in chief of the Washington County Umpires' Association, Mary Hughes, of Wakefield, assigns officials to all youth baseball and softball games in Narragansett and South Kingstown, and some games in Chariho and Westerly.

There are close to 50 umpires in her association, but only about 10 are women. She's anxious to change that ratio of men to women, but she knows it's a slow process.

"We're always trying to recruit more young women into umpiring," says Hughes. "We run clinics, promotions, open meetings, and make ourselves available at games. Our goal is to be able to assign good, experienced female umpires to important girls games so they can act as role models for the players."

She doesn't agree, however, with the philosophy recently exhibited at the Women's World Cup Soccer Tournament, where only women were allowed to referee.

"You shouldn't use women to officiate unless they're as qualified as men, just to make a statement," Hughes says. "We don't want to assign women to important games unless we feel that they're ready."

Hughes, Carol Doherty and Robin Noury are the association's most experienced female umpires and have recently done Little League all-star tournament games. Hughes and Noury are also high school boy's baseball board-certified and work games throughout the spring.

"The baseball coaches treat us just like the guys," Hughes says. "No kid gloves for us. They'll challenge us on just about everything and that's fine with us."

For more information about becoming an umpire, contact Hughes at (401) 783-8075.