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Spring Training<\/strong><\/p>\n It was the first week of classes in September of 1987, and a fire drill commenced at Tolland Hall on North Campus. Two Connecticut freshmen noticed each other wearing high school football jackets and realized they had played against each other.<\/p>\n Iassogna had been at St. Joseph High in Trumbull, and Reynolds went to South Catholic High in Hartford. They discovered they both had played baseball at various levels and Iassogna, the son of a high school football referee, said he thought it would be cool to be an umpire. Reynolds agreed.<\/p>\n Their initial gigs came at the hands of longtime UConn baseball coach Andy Baylock, who had them practice the mechanics of making safe and out calls and taught them how to position themselves to make the right call (be perpendicular to the play to get the best view for a call on the bases, he said). Eventually, they earned one classroom credit and graduated from umping JV to varsity games.<\/p>\n \u201cCoach Baylock considered his umpires part of the baseball program, and we were treated that way. Although the players were not always happy with our performance, they never took it past the ball field,\u201d recalls Reynolds. \u201cIn fact, the best player at UConn at the time was Pete Walker, now the pitching coach for the Toronto Blue Jays, and I can remember several times where if guys were getting out of hand with the student umpires, he would actually shut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI never had any negative interactions with any of the baseball players,\u201d agrees Iassogna, adding, \u201cI do remember officiating some intramural basketball games that got a little dicey!\u201d<\/p>\n Baylock has their umpire jerseys framed on a wall in his house. \u201cThey were dependable as undergraduates, and they\u2019re still that way. They\u2019re very good at what they do,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of what they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n