Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA)

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. --- The International Softball Federation (ISF) recently announced the umpires named for the 2010 Women’s World Championships in Caracas, Venezuela June 23- July 2. Two U.S. umpires, Chris Drumm (San Diego, Calif.) and Jeff Sloan (Omaha, Neb.), will represent the United States and the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America at the championship this summer.

“Well this has always been a lifetime goal,” said Sloan. “With the Olympic Games no longer an option, this is the pinnacle that I have always strived to achieve. It means a lot to me and I am very appreciative of those that have helped me progress as an umpire. There are an awful lot of ASA people in particular who have helped me from the start in learning how to deal with the highest levels.”

Sloan, a 22-year umpire, is very rooted in the ASA program and has always put ASA on his priority list. He is a member of the Nebraska Umpire-In-Chief staff, umpires the Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Mountain West and Missouri Valley Division I conferences. The World Championships will add to his international career as he umpired in the 2005 National Games of the Republic of China and in the 2005 and 2006 World Cup of Softball.

Drumm, a 16-year umpire, participates at the Division I level primarily in the Mountain West Conference and is a member of the Southern California ASA Umpire-In-Chief staff. The Worlds will mark her fifth international event as she was an umpire for the 2009 Chinese National Games, worked the 2007 and 2005 World Cup and the 2006 World University Games.

“I am extremely excited and honored to be selected to umpire at this event,” said Drumm. “This has absolutely been a goal of mine over the years. I am really looking forward to creating new friendships and working with other umpires from other countries. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity.”

Below is the entire listing of the umpires selected to the ISF Women’s World Championships. The group includes on-field officials from 15 different countries and will be supervised by ISF Director of Umpires Bob Stanton.

(alphabetically by country name)

Javier Eduardo PENARROYA, Argentina Roberto SANCHEZ, Dominican Republic

Darren SIBRAA, Australia Andrea MARCON, Italy

Scott RINDFLEISH, Australia Mitsutake ARIYAMA, Japan

Bonnie GOSTOLA, Canada Peter VONK, Netherlands

Grant HOOD, Canada Nicky OGIER, New Zealand

Maria MEJIA MORA, Colombia Thabo DIKGALE, South Africa

Marlene SABOGAL VIGOYA, Colombia Christina DRUMM, USA

Tomislav OZIMEC, Croatia Jeffrey M. SLOAN, USA

Raul GARRIDO, Cuba Carlos Eduardo FALCON C., Venezuela

Pavel KASPERCIK, Czech Republic Pedro Rafael JIMENEZ H., Venezuela

Mr. Stanton said that actually the hope is to add two more umpires to the above crew in the next week.

The 16 teams that will compete are: Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Great Britain, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, USA, and Venezuela.

The game schedule is being finalized and will be released shortly.

This year’s event marks the 45th anniversary of the first-ever softball world championship (see commemorative logo below). Five women’s teams competed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1965, and one year later the first men’s world championship was held (eleven countries competed in Mexico City). Eventually world championships were also started in the junior women’s and junior men’s categories (age 19-and-under).

About ASA

The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation's largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 76 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 210,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit www.asasoftball.com.

About USA Softball

USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight World Championship titles including the last six consecutive as well as claimed two World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit www.usasoftball.com.

About ISF

The ISF is the world governing body of the sport as recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and SportAccord (formerly the General Association of International Sports Federations). Softball (women's fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There are 128 affiliated countries in the ISF and millions of participants in the sport worldwide.

MEDIA: For more information, please contact ISF Director of Communications Bruce Wawrzyniak at brucew@ISFsoftball.org, +1-813-864-0100, or +1-813-453-8762.

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