INDIANAPOLIS - Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Commissioner Tom Daeger has announced Deron Brown as the league's first Supervisor of Baseball Umpires. Brown will assume the role for the 2012-13 season and provide the conference supervision of the league's baseball umpires, including hiring, assigning, training and evaluation.
“Deron Brown will provide the conference vast experience amount of umpiring and supervising experience and will be instrumental in in developing the umpiring program for the G-MAC,” said Daeger. “He has worked with numerous NCAA conferences as an umpire and as an assigner and we are fortunate he has agreed to work with the G-MAC.”
Brown, who has taught for the last 24 years and umpired for the last 26 years, started his assigning career in 1987 in a 15-under league in Troy, Ohio. Since then he has been supervisor for the NABF College Division World Series, American Mideast Conference (NAIA), Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (NCAA Division III), Frontier League (Independent Professional Baseball), and also serves as Arbiter Administrator for College Baseball Umpire’s Alliance (CBUA).
With the CBUA, he is responsible for coordinating 30 assignors and over 900 college umpires across the Midwest, covering the Big East, Big 10, Missouri Valley League, MAC, Atlantic 10, Horizon League, Summit, Great West, GLIAC, GLVC, AMC, MCC, WHAC, HCAC, MIAA, NCAC, and the PAC – which makes up the largest college umpire association in the country.
Brown has served as a science teacher for the last 24 years, including teaching physics for Tippecanoe High School for the last 21 years. He has taught AP physics for the last 10 years. “This is my greatest contribution to society,” said Brown of his experience in the classroom. During this time as a teacher he coached both baseball (two years) and football (12 years).
As an educator, Brown has also been umpiring since 1986. He starting umpiring 13-year old baseball and has progressed to working the Big East (NCAA Division 1), MAC (NCAA Division 1) and Frontier League (Independent Professional Baseball) games. In 2012, Brown was fortunate enough to umpire on ESPN (University of Louisville vs. Saint John’s University) as well as umpiring the NCAA Division III World Series.
Brown resides in Troy, OH for the last 23 years, raising his two sons. Chase is 23 years old and currently serving in the army, while Cooper is 17 years old and has Down Syndrome. Ellen, his wife of 24 years, passed away in April 2011 after a long battle with cancer. Brown has a one year old grand-daughter named Sophie.