Mike Doohan
Class of 2023
Mike Doohan says he “just stumbled across an opportunity.” And for the next thirty years, he took full advantage of it. Long-time CHSBUA umpire Gene Crusan recruited Mike in 1982 from a softball field in Commerce City. It was an offer Mike couldn’t refuse; nine-year old softball for eight dollars a game. Mike’s story was no different than most career arbiters. Eventually, he registered with the CHSBUA umpire group in Boulder, Colorado and came under the mentorship of Ken Furman and Doug Graham, both noted umpires, CHSBUA Boulder Area Directors, and CHSBUA Executive Committee members. Four years later, Mike attended The Harry Wendelstedt Professional Umpire School and returned to Boulder to continue what was to become a very successful career on the diamond. Eventually, Mike followed his mentors off the field as well becoming the CHSBUA Boulder Area Director in the early 1990’s. Before it was all over, Mike also sat on the CHSBUA Executive Committee and developed into an umpire of note being selected to umpire post-season contests for twenty-five years, working fifteen state tournament contests. Looking back, Mike comments that for him the most important job of an area director was to keep people engaged and positive. He did both and what he accomplished as an area director can serve as a blueprint for CHSBUA area directors across the state today. He sought out professional training and returned to his local group and developed a training regimen based on sound, professional fundamentals instead of the usual anecdotal “strategies” which were often “tried but not often true” by most area directors of the past. Mike was among the first to bring professional umpiring to amateur umpires. CHSBUA area directors follow his example to this day. Along the way, Mike says he got to know a great group of people. But a lot of those people also got to know a great mentor who took the proper steps to help them improve both on and off the diamond.