NSA Hall of Fame: Bill Suich (2006)
CATEGORY: Umpire
YEAR INDUCTED: 2006
AWARDS GIVEN:
- 1994 Mike Coppinger UIC of the Year Award
- 1998 Mike Coppinger UIC of the Year Award
Bill Suich started with the NSA as an umpire when Hugh Cantrell visited the Cleveland, Ohio area in his attempt to start the NSA program in the Northern Ohio. From that meeting Bill Suich jumped on board with NSA and has proven to be one of the most influential people in the entire NSA family. Bill’s start as an umpire progressed rapidly into the position of Assistant State UIC for Ohio. Bill was promoted to the Ohio State Umpire in Chief where he won the Region 5 UIC of the year on two occasions. Bill was promoted to Region 5 UIC for his outstanding contributions while being the state UIC which put Bill in charge of 5 states. Bill promptly won the National Award of NSA Regional UIC of the year on two occasions, in 1994 and again in 1998. When NSA changed its state alignments from Regions to Zones, Bill Suich was promoted again from Regional UIC to Zone UIC which put 16 states and part of Canada under his able guidance. Bill has been a UIC at every level of NSA competition from the Men, Women, Youth,
COED and every division in between. Bill is an umpire’s umpire and an umpire’s UIC. Meaning, he works for the love of the game and not the accolades. Bill treats a weekend qualifier with 6 teams the same as he does a Youth World Series with 600 teams. It is just another day doing something that Bill loves to do and the teams and umpires see, understand, appreciate and respect him for it.
At the same time Bill was being a UIC of countless tournaments, Bill continued a rigorous umpiring schedule. Sometimes working as many as six World Series a year when he wasn’t the UIC of the tournament. He worked the Men’s Major an impressive six times, and the AA and countless other level World Series Tournaments. Bill has worked countless Regional, State and NIT tournaments in a career that is still going strong at the time of his induction. If you ask Bill how many World, Regional, State, NIT or qualifying tournaments he’s worked, he will humbly reply, “I do not know; a lot; but that stuff’s not important to me.” What is important to Bill Suich is the game of softball; not any fame or accolade that he may humbly acquire along the way.
In November 2006 Bill Suich became the 8th umpire to be inducted into the NSA Hall of Fame.
