COEUR d’ALENE — After years of giving back to the Coeur d’Alene Little League, the volunteer work by one umpire is starting to pay huge rewards.

The foursome of Allen VanDuyne, Brian Rounds, Frank Garcia and Richard Clark have spent countless hours over the past two weeks, helping umpire nearly 90 games in the District 1 Little League tournaments in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum and Hayden.

Rounds will represent District 1 and the state of Idaho as an umpire for the West Regional Little League tournament in San Bernardino, Calif., Aug. 6-15 at Al Houghton Stadium. Umpires are selected from 11 different states, with an individual selected from Idaho every three years.

Rounds, who is Coeur d’Alene Little League Umpire in Chief, began calling games in 2000 and was selected for regionals after traveling to San Bernardino for high-intensity clinics over the past five years.

“It’s a bit of a process,” Rounds said. “You’ve got to go to all the clinics in San Bernardino. Frank and I have been to a few clinics together down there. It’s a thorough process to get selected to umpire games at regionals.”

“It’s like boot camp and day camp rolled into one,” Garcia said.

Rounds, who has attended three different clinics in San Bernardino, added with more experience, some umpires are picked to lead sessions.

“I did a junior umpire clinic in both 2008 and 2009,” Rounds said. “As guys come to the school, the organizers want to see quality before they let you get out on the field.”

“As a district administrator, I’m responsible for scheduling all umpires for the district tournaments,” Will Neal said. “These guys have done 54 games here at Canfield in the past two weeks and another 35 in Hayden during the same time. These guys are doing this for free. They just love being out there with the kids.”

When attending clinics, the umpires receive no funds from their local league to attend.

“It’s a one-week school at their own expense,” Neal said. “Some of them have to take time off work — but they go to be the best.”

A requirement of those selected is to oversee a game tournament setting, either a district or state tournament.

“Each year, you’ve got to have at least one tournament to be submitted (for the regionals),” Rounds said. “If Will (Neal) thinks it was a good year, he’ll submit my name. Another requirement is that you have to be submitted for five straight years, with no lapse in between.”

Umpires are also judged by their safety records, with leagues needing a safety system on file and approved by regional directors along with their application to umpire at the regional tournament.

The region receives between 140 to 180 nominations each year.

“We’re real big on safety,” Neal said. “Obviously we want to officiate a good game, but our biggest goal is to keep everyone safe. These guys all put in a lot of hours and do the jobs well.”

Bill Carter, Little League West Region Umpire in Chief, selects the officials for regionals.

“If Bill is going to select an umpire, he wants to make sure they’ve been to all the clinics,” Rounds said. “The week-long is one that’s required and working tournaments in a higher level of play.”

Of going to California to umpire games, Rounds added he’s looking forward to the experience.

“I’m excited,” Rounds said. “I’m sure I’ll have goose bumps when the time comes. As the local tournaments have progressed, I’ve put myself in a few hot seat games to prepare myself. I’ll just try to slow everything down, but I want to enjoy the moment too. I think I’ll be able to remain calm, but getting there is a dream — so I might be a little nervous.”

ESPN will show six games from the region, including both semifinals and finals, which typically draws 10,000 spectators.

“It’s probably the best venue for a regional tournament,” Garcia said. “There’s always a big excitement for it. It’s one of the most well-established tournaments.”

“Brian has really dedicated himself to the craft,” Neal said. “He gives immeasurable hours for our program and has worked well with Torben (Begines). He’s a great guy and role model for the kids. They know he’s an umpire when he’s on the field, but he also really enjoys helping the kids. It’s really what brings all of them back. They want to advance their skills. All of them have goals to be better.”

Garcia is responsible for scheduling umpires for District 1 high school and American Legion baseball games. Begines has been the District I UIC (Umpire in Chief) since 2001 and umpired the West Regional in 2002 and a Junior Regional in 2006.

“About 80 percent of umpires started as volunteers,” Garcia said. “I got my start in 1996-97 when I wasn’t coaching games. It got to the point when we kept needing umpires, so I started doing a ton of games.”

Coeur d’Alene currently has a pool of 16 to 20 umpires for games, while teams in Southern California have 50 to 75.

“It’s tough to find good umpires,” Rounds said.

VanDuyne, who has worked as a volunteer in the Rathdrum area, traveled to the San Bernardino clinics in 2006.

“It was pretty intense,” VanDuyne said of the clinics. “There wasn’t as much yelling and screaming as I thought there’d be. It was a good intense week to cover all the rules of the game.”

VanDuyne added that the toughest thing to finding a good umpire is keeping them involved.

“There’s a fair amount of clothing and equipment to buy,” VanDuyne said. “When I was in charge of the Rathdrum league, we’d try to get them what they need. It helps them look better on the field.”

VanDuyne began rewarding umpires that worked over 10 games a season.

“It got to the point where I’d buy them the full gear,” VanDuyne said. “We’d try anything to keep people involved with the program.”

At the Little League level, umpires are not paid for officiating games.

“This is my way of giving back to the league for what it gave me,” Rounds said. “I had a lot of different coaches that were like father figures to me. Each one of them played a huge role. This is a way to give back for what the league gave me when I was younger.”