Lentz Learned from 'Legacy,' Builds Own
June 9, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Umpire Nic Lentz stepped onto the field April 20 at Marlins Park prior to Miami’s game against the Washington Nationals, and he was met by moments he’ll remember the rest of his life.
The game was his first at the Major League Baseball level. And if that wasn’t enough, the Howell native's parents Steve and Tammy were in the crowd – “so not only was it a special moment for me, but also making them proud walking on that field for the first time is something I’ll have for the rest of my life,” Lentz said.
“It was all very humbling. It’s hard to describe what it feels like receiving that call or stepping on that field for the first time,” Lentz wrote recently during a break in his whirlwind tour as a first-year fill-in for MLB umpires who are ill, injured or on vacation. “That being said, from a personal aspect, it took me back to years I have spent in this profession … things I have learned throughout the years both on and off the field.”
By the end of May, Lentz had traveled from Miami, to Cincinnati, then on to Baltimore, Los Angeles, Seattle, Arizona, Houston, Detroit and Toronto.
And the story of his start in officiating has been nearly as well traveled these last few weeks, with the hope his rise through the ranks – including a spring as part of the MHSAA’s Legacy Student Officials Program – might serve as an inspiration to young people considering the opportunities that come with the officiating avocation.
Lentz, 26, has risen from entry level to the largest stage in just under a decade. He began umpiring at the rec levels when he was 12; by the time he was 16, he was done playing and passionate about becoming an umpire.
A homeschooled student in the Howell area, Lentz approached then-Highlanders athletic director Doug Paige to find out how he might be able to continue growing his skills and take them to the next level.
Paige called Dan Jeffery, who currently is in his 22nd year as an officials assigner in the southeastern Lower Peninsula and works with the Kensington Lakes Activities Association and Southeastern Conference.
“Nic was 16 years old, and my son (Dan, Jr.) and I were working a game at Hartland, and I said why not come out and watch us work and we’ll talk,” Jeffery Sr. said. “Next thing you know, here’s this tall, skinny young kid waving at us.”
A decade later, Lentz took his post near first base in front of nearly 17,000 fans, the latest step in a career that’s also included stops in 10 leagues at various levels of the minor league and instructional ladder, mostly in the U.S. but also Venezuela, and MLB spring training as well.
Beginning a legacy
That first meeting with the Jefferys turned into a spot in the MHSAA Legacy Program, which pairs high school juniors and seniors interested in officiating with a registered MHSAA official. The veteran mentors the younger official, providing guidance in getting started while the pair works games together at the middle school/junior high and subvarsity levels.
Jeffery Sr. paired Lentz with Kyle Clapper, a former player when Jeffery was part of Howell’s football staff. Lentz also continued attending games worked by Jeffery and his son (Dan Jr. now officiates at the college level), and remains in regular contact with Jeffery Sr. today. He received additional input and guidance from MHSAA assistant director Mark Uyl, who is in charge of officials for the association and worked the NCAA Division I College Baseball World Series in 2014.
“(Lentz) came around and watched and showed this unbelievable interest,” Jeffery said. “He just took to it. It’s unbelievable. It’s amazing.”
“From a personal aspect, it was the next stepping-stone for me,” Lentz said of the Legacy Program. “I had been umpiring travel baseball for the past few years now, and I wanted to grow in my skills and take it to the next level. The Legacy Program seemed to be the best option. I always looked at it as the launching pad for where I am today.”
Lentz clearly has a natural talent for his profession. In January 2008, just turned 18 and recently graduated from high school, he attended the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring. After graduation there, he was put on the wait list for the Coastal Plain League, a wood bat league for college players in Virginia and North and South Carolina. He worked in that league three weeks during the summer of 2008 – and then received a call from the Arizona League, a rookie league that serves as the entry level for many minor league baseball players.
With that, Lentz began climbing his ladder as well.
Top rung and top-shelf
Lentz is in his third season in the International League, which is Triple-A – the highest minor league level for players. He’s a crew chief at that level.
He’s also shined during his MLB fill-in opportunities.
“His attention to detail; when you look at him today … his posture and his presence, you just see it,” Jeffery said. “As soon as you look at him, you just see it.
“He knows the rules, he studies really well, and mechanically he’s incredible. He not only studies the rules, but he knows where he’s supposed to be.”
Lentz lives in Holland (as do his parents) and in 2009 joined the crew of instructors for the annual Southeast Michigan Umpire Camp, which focuses on teaching high school officiating mechanics and draws roughly 100 officials to Livonia every February. Jeffery said that two years ago, there were 40 officials younger than 20 years old.
Jeffery calls himself the “old dude” at 68. But Lentz’ presence and current experience certainly resonate with their students.
“Nic is great with the campers and is very well-liked,” said official Bill Parker, the president and founder of the camp who also has worked in minor league baseball. “He will do anything that is asked of him. It has been a great joy watching Nic progress through the minor leagues and into the major leagues.”
“I would and do tell future and current umpires to continue to have a passion for the game. You can’t umpire any game, be it at the amateur or professional level, without that passion,” Lentz said. “So follow that passion, have fun doing it, stay humble and work hard every day. I would say that to be true for any career in life, wherever that passion may be.”
Michigan family, friends and fellow officials are cheering on that passion as they watch Lentz’ travels this summer and anticipate his move to MLB full-time in the future. Jeffery said he sees Lentz working at that highest level for decades to come – but also told his former protégé to make sure to take it all in that first game April 20, “take a deep breath, take a look around and remember where you’re at.”
And Lentz will never take for granted those who have helped him get there.
“There are so many people I have kept in touch with over the years, both before my professional career and throughout it,” Lentz said. “There are so many friendships I have built, and the support of everyone has always meant a great deal to me. And you can’t come close to putting a price tag on that.”
Click to learn more about the MHSAA Legacy Student Officials Program or Southeast Michigan Umpire Camp.
PHOTOS: (Top) Nic Lentz serves as plate umpire during an MLB game last month. (Middle) Lentz enters the field and works at third base during a game at Comerica Park. (Below) Lentz instructs umpires at the Southeast Michigan Umpire Camp. (Photos courtesy of Dan Jeffery, Sr., Bill Parker and the Lentz family.)
Thankful for Lifesavers Who Rushed to His Aid, Sanders Aims to Officiate Again
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
January 14, 2025
Doug Sanders sat quietly thinking about how to best describe what he went through the day after Thanksgiving at Monroe Jefferson High School.
Finally, he just said it.
“Basically, I died twice,” he said, almost apologetically.
Sanders, 56, was officiating a boys varsity basketball game between Petersburg-Summerfield and Jefferson when he collapsed. First responders who were in attendance quickly got to Sanders and began performing life-saving procedures.
Responders performed chest compressions. Twice they used a defibrillator to shock him. He regained consciousness once only to inform the responders they were hurting his chest, then his heart stopped again.
When he left Jefferson that night on a stretcher, he was alert.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my 24 years coaching,” Summerfield coach Phil Schiffler said. “I’ve seen gruesome things, compound fractures and things, but never someone pass like that, especially someone who was an official, in charge of the game.
“Thank God for the first responders there that night.”
Petersburg residents Matt LaRocca and Aaron Myshock were the first to assist Sanders on the court. Others helped as well, including Summerfield athletic director Kelly Kalb, former Summerfield athlete Brendan Dafoe, a nurse; and Angela Prush, who works at Monroe County Community College as a clinical educator in the respiratory therapy program. Jefferson athletic director Alyssa Eppler helped on the scene as well.
“There was no hesitation,” Kalb said. “As soon as Doug went down, Matt and Aaron took off to the court and got to Doug. Everyone played a role. It was a great collaboration."
Kalb said the MHSAA this year implemented a new policy requiring schools to have an Emergency Action Plan in the event of this very type of emergency. That plan, she said, definitely helped both schools as they responded.
“We lost him a couple of times,” she said. “It was scary.”
Sanders knew something was wrong during the game. Moments before falling to the floor he called over one of his officiating partners, Steve Rechsteiner, and said something was wrong. He asked him to get him some water and said he felt light-headed.
“I said, ‘Help me,’” Sanders said. Moments later, he went to the floor.
As responders attended to Sanders, officials from both schools cleared the gymnasium of spectators and players, and the game was called. Players and fans left the gymnasium that night unsure of the events that had just unfolded in front of them.
“It’s amazing how it all happened,” said Sanders, who has been a registered MHSAA official for more than 30 years. “If I would have been driving or anywhere else when it happened, I may not be here today to talk about it.”
Sanders has had a history of heart problems, and those run in his family. About four years ago, he had open-heart surgery. Officiating another game a few nights before the incident at Jefferson, he had collapsed during a timeout. He was under doctor’s care but felt well enough to return to the court after enjoying Thanksgiving with his family.
The game between Summerfield and Jefferson went into the fourth quarter. That’s when Sanders began to feel something was wrong.
“I am so blessed and grateful to be where the right people were with me,” Sanders said. “I had the right people there at the right time.”
After being transported to a nearby hospital in Monroe, he was sent to another in Toledo. He spent several days in the hospital undergoing heart tests and procedures. He went home for recovery and recently started attending basketball games in the area again.
“People have been so nice through all of this,” he said. “I’ve gotten messages and cards and calls and texts from people all over the place, people I don’t even know. A lot of the officials that I’ve worked with have reached out to me. It’s really a close-knit group.”
Thankfully, his heart is improving.
Sanders is a 1987 graduate of Ottawa Lake Whiteford. He got his start as a referee for youth basketball at Whiteford Elementary School. Then-athletic director John Flynn encouraged him to get his MHSAA registration, and helped him get it. Soon after, Flynn was assigning him middle school games.
Over the years, Sanders began umpiring baseball and added refereeing football a few years ago.
He loves sports and being close to the game.
“That’s why I do it,” he said. “I wanted to be a basketball official because I enjoy working with the student-athletes. I like the exercise, especially during the wintertime. Outside it’s snowy and wet, and this was a way to get out and do something.”
He’s busiest during basketball season where he is assigned as many as four or five games a week. In 2022, he officiated a boys Semifinal game at the Breslin Center. He rarely slows down or takes nights off.
Since the incident, Sanders has been going through a series of tests on his heart and has had an ICD – or implantable cardioverter defibrillator – installed in his chest. An elementary school teacher in Toledo, he expects to return to work soon.
He’s met some of the first responders who helped save him that night at Jefferson but still isn’t sure just how many people played a role. He’s grateful the district had a defibrillator nearby – and especially that people were there who knew how to use it.
Schiffler said people just sprang into action, like they were trained to do.
“I was shook. I’m not going to lie,” he said. “The people who were trained in that knew just what to do.”
LaRocca and Myshock were there watching their sons play on the Summerfield team. Dafoe, who played sports at Summerfield and with Sanders as his referee and umpire on a number of occasions, has a brother on the varsity team.
Sanders is tentatively scheduled to referee a game at Adrian Lenawee Christian on Monday, Jan. 20. He can’t wait to shake the rust off, put on the striped shirt and blow his whistle. He knows there will be eyes on him throughout the game.
“I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘Take the rest of the winter off, don’t come back too early,’” Sanders said. “I want to get back out there. Something tells me in my heart and soul that I’m ready. I had my stress test, and I did well. Am I ready? I want to say yes. I think so. Only time will tell.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) MHSAA official Doug Sanders monitors the action during a 2022 Division 4 Semifinal between Wyoming Tri-unity Christian and Genesee Christian. (Middle) Bradley is in uniform for a baseball game. (Below) Bradley makes a call behind the plate during a Monroe County Fair youth softball tournament game at least a decade ago. (Middle photo courtesy of Doug Sanders. Below photo by Kim Brent, courtesy of the Monroe News.)