Rick Darby, assistant principal during the week, spends spring weekends traveling long distances to umpire college games.
By KEITH NIEBUHR
Published May 23, 2004
INVERNESS - At 4:39 a.m. Friday, Rick Darby pulled out of his driveway.
Beneath a dark sky, he headed east toward Interstate 75. From there, he headed north to Athens, Ga., some eight hours away from his Inverness home. This afternoon, after three days of umpiring college games, Darby will turn around and head home.
Tomorrow, it's back to the office.
Tiring? Time consuming?
You bet, but for Darby, these weekend trips are pure enjoyment.
"I love it," he said.
Darby has been an assistant principal at Citrus for 10 years, but he has been an umpire for 30. He mixes the two every spring while making time for Kimberly, his wife of 22 years, and 14-year-old daughter Gillian.
"It's the only hobby I know of that pays for itself and gives him all the rest and relaxation he needs," Kimberly said.
Umpiring might not seem like the potion for rest and relaxation, but for Darby, it's more than a passing fancy. And really, it's more than a hobby, too.
His love of the game dates to his youth, when as a youngster he played high school ball in Panama City. Later, he pitched at the University of Montevallo in Alabama.
As an 18-year-old college student, Darby umpired a Little League game at the request of a friend. He made $4.
After a couple of weeks, he was asked to move up a league to where the 13- to 14-year-olds played. A few weeks later, he was moved up again, to the 17-year-olds. Soon, it was in his blood.
A shoulder injury caused Darby to miss a season in college. He returned but pitched sparingly his final year. "My shoulder was shot," he said.
His passion was not.
A few years after college, Darby decided to attend umpire school.
"At that point, I had umpired eight or nine years and had picked up a lot of amateur habits," Darby said. "So they made some adjustments with mechanics.
"They wanted me doing it the proper way instead of the way I had learned."
A year later, Darby landed a spot with the rookie-level Appalachian League, working games featuring then-minor-leaguers Dwight Gooden and Kirby Puckett. Darby moved up the ranks to Double A but by 1987 was getting eager for a jump to the majors.
When in 1987 neither the American nor National League pursued his services, a disappointed Darby decided to switch career paths and retired from professional ball.
"I didn't want to be there forever and not get to the major leagues," he said. "I ran out of time in my mind.
"I was married and wanted to stay married. But it took me some time to get over it."
Working professional games had been a grind. So in a sense, a move to the college game wasn't so difficult. Today, Darby is a veteran umpire for the ACC, Atlantic Sun Conference and SEC. He umpires about 80 games a year from Gainesville to Baton Rouge, La., and many places in between. He carefully uses personal days to limit his time away from Citrus.
"It's a pretty good little supplement," Darby said. "It's something that I have learned to love. It's kind of an addiction. When I decided I wanted to do it professionally, I found that I could work hard and enjoy it."
Kimberly and Gillian stay involved. Often, they make road trips with Darby.
"We spend a lot of quality time together during the week," Kimberly said. "And periodically, we go with him. Gillian has been to many more states and cities than I ever went to at her age. Rick has tried hard to expose her to lots of things and people."
Not to mention fans.
Kimberly, who works at the Bank of Inverness, said her husband taught her early on how to deal with the comments that come from the seats.
He told her to ignore them, that what they said, no matter how harmful it seemed, wasn't personal. Now the parents are teaching their daughter the same.
"She tends to get upset when people talk about her daddy," Kimberly said. "But she does very well."
Kimberly is proud of her husband. She calls him a consistent, fair umpire. And she is quick to note that only once after a long weekend of travel has he missed a Monday at work.
"He wasn't too tired," she said. "It was because he got stuck after a flight got canceled."
