After a tense couple of weeks, especially on the Gulf Coast, it looks like the Alabama high school baseball season will start on time – weather permitting.

Alabama High School Athletic Association teams can officially play their first games Thursday, though the forecast doesn’t look great.

Weather hasn’t been the primary concern in recent weeks as umpires threatened a strike over a desired pay increase. On Wednesday morning, however, officials for two Gulf Coast umpire associations both said they expect games to be played on time this weekend with no lapses.

“As far as I know, all the games will be covered,” said Tony Combs, president of the South Alabama Baseball Umpire Association.

Combs, who has been umpiring baseball since 1998, said there was a statewide focus last summer designed to retain officials and recruit new ones. He said multiple meetings resulted in talks of a pay increase that “everyone wanted.”

The current rate for AHSAA officials is $80 for a regular-season varsity baseball game.

“We met the with AHSAA in August with our concerns and, again, our main purpose was to retain and recruit,” Combs said. “They enlisted a baseball committee consisting of eight coaches from across the state and the proposal was for a $10 pay increase on games and $15 for travel. We felt like that would go before Mr. (AHSAA executive director Alvin) Briggs and (director of officials) Ken Washington. It was presented, but we never heard much back. It has gotten to the point now where they stipulated very strongly that they cannot give a raise in the middle of the year.”

Any raise for officials would need to be improved by the AHSAA’s Central Board of Control and would be across all sports, not just baseball. At its January meeting, the AHSAA Central Board heard a report from Washington on the issue and decided to form a committee to study the request and seek data from other Section 3 states. That committee is expected to bring back a recommendation to the Board at its April meeting.

If a raise is recommended and approved, it would not go into effect until the 2023-2024 school year because the AHSAA operates around a June 1 to May 31 calendar. In recent days, the talk of a possible strike has primarily been focused in the Mobile/Baldwin County area, raising concern about the start of the season for those teams impacted.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve never worried about anything this much,” one Gulf Coast coach said earlier this week. “I feel helpless. I don’t know what to do. All I’m concerned about right now is how and where my kids are going to play.”

Combs said the South Alabama association, with some strong veteran umpires, wanted to hold out and see what happened this year with a possible raise. In the meantime, veteran umpire Johnny Thornton broke away from that group and started a new association, Gulf Coast BB103.

“I think everyone is going to be fine,” Thornton said Wednesday morning. “We are working hard and diligent to get it going. I have the utmost respect for Mr. Tony. I was for the strike originally, but after I got home and thought about it, I just wanted to do what is right for the kids. I have kids who have played the game and I know how I would feel, as an official, if I had to go home and tell one of them, we weren’t going to play. I didn’t want that to be the case.”

Combs said the remaining members of his association (approximately 90) are now ready to umpire games this year at the regular rate and hope a raise is implemented next year. Thornton and his group (currently at 39 and “steadily climbing,” he said) are ready as well. The schools along the Coast have signed on with one of the groups.

Combs said his group will call most of the private school home games in Mobile and Baldwin Counties along with Saraland, Satsuma, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal. Thornton’s group will call the Mobile and Baldwin County public school home games and UMS-Wright.

“I’m not trying to step on anyone’s toes,” Thornton said. “I hate it if anyone is mad. People came to me and wanted to do something different, and we wanted the kids to be able to play. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, we will work something out next year.

“I’ve received backlash, but I’ve prayed about it. I just want to do what is right. We do need a raise, but at the end of the day, let’s work, let the kids play and get the rest ironed out later.”

Combs also maintains that a raise is needed.

“For the time we put in and the abuse sometimes we have to take, we need something to be able to keep new guys and retain our veterans,” he said.

In a lengthy statement to AL.com on Wednesday morning, Briggs said in part:

“The AHSAA respects the concerns presented by our contest officials and is working through the process to determine appropriate action to address those concerns and the concerns of its member schools. We greatly appreciate our contest officials who are continuing to officiate while we work through this process keeping the best interest of our student-athletes as the top priority.”

Briggs pointed out in the statement that AHSAA baseball officials and other sports’ officials received their last pay raise for the 2019-2020 school year. That increase raised the pay from $60 to $80 for regular-season varsity games, an increase of 25 percent. Briggs said junior varsity fees increased by more than 30 percent. Baseball officials didn’t benefit much from the raise in 2020 since that season was canceled after several weeks by the pandemic.

The fees also increased for the state playoffs – from $65 per official for the first four rounds to $95 for round one, $105 for round two, $115 for round three, $125 for round four and, for the state championship series, the fee increased by 100 percent going from $70 per official to $140 for three-man crews and from $50 to $100 for six-man crews.

Briggs also said the mileage fee structure changed in 2019-2020 from $8 per game per official regardless of distance to $25 per official for travel of 61 to 120 miles; $50 for travel from 121 to 180 miles and $75 for travel of more than 180 miles. There is no mileage fee added for travel less than 60 miles.

“The AHSAA appreciates its contest officials in all sports and works diligently to keep AHSAA fees comparable to other Section 3 State Associations while weighing the impact increased fees might have on our member schools and the sports they can offer for their student-athletes,” Briggs said.

The AHSAA statement also contained this clarification about officials’ payments.

Officiating fees should be agreed upon in negotiations between the local officials’ association and the school. However, any and all agreed-upon fees must be within the maximum amount the schools are allowed to pay according to the AHSAA Maximum Fee Schedule. Any school that agrees to fees in excess of the maximum schedule will be in violation of AHSAA bylaws and may be subject to fines, probation (including restrictive probation) and/or suspension from the AHSAA. The fee schedule is set in the interest of fair play for all schools.

Briggs said local umpire associations are not permitted to exceed the rate approved by the Central Board. Any association found in violation is subject to suspension, he said.