SIOUX FALLS — Rich Skorheim of Miller and formerly from Huron is one of four individuals set to be inducted into USA Softball of South Dakota Hall of Fame.

An induction banquet and award ceremony is scheduled for Oct. 14 at the Holiday Inn City Centre in Sioux Falls.
Joining Skorheim in this year’s class of inductees is Chuck Buchheim of Sioux Falls, Steve Rabine of Watertown/Aberdeen and the late Ken Waltner of Freeman/Sioux Falls.

Rich Skorheim, Umpire, Miller, SD
Rich Skorheim started umpiring in 1988 in Huron South Dakota, working Men’s, Women’s, Co-ed, Youth Slowpitch, and college fastpitch. For most of those years, he was also the working UIC for those leagues in Huron as well.

Rich has umpired more than 50 state tournament weekends, working games in all 4 entities mentioned as well as 14” and 16” Slowpitch. But it did not stop with just state tournaments as he as chosen to umpire three Dakota Regional Tournaments in the 1990s also

Rich had excellent ratings at every national tournament he umpired in. They were in 1987 16” A, in 1998 16” Major and then repeated with 16” A in 2000 and 16” major in 2004. He capped off his National Tournament umpiring in 2007 with the Hooter’s Slowpitch Championships in OKC.

Starting in 2010 Rich had a 6-year run of being the USA Softball UIC at 6 national tournaments. Four of those were the Men’s E/Rec, 2010 in Bismarck, 2012 and ’16 in Sioux Falls, and 2015 in Rapid City.  In 2011 he was UIC at the Youth Nationals in Watertown and finished in 2016 with Women’s C/D in Sioux Falls. In the last couple of years, Rich has added to his duties as he is the UIC for the 4-day, 70-plus team Native World Series at Star of the West Complex in Rapid City.

His umpiring skills as well as his involvement on local and state boards earned him a spot as Deputy UIC in 2005 and in 2009 Steve Riswold named Rich the Associate State Umpire in Chief, Slowpitch. He honorably holds both of those positions today.

Rich has been a warrior as Associate UIC. The “easy” part of this job is being the UIC at various adult state tournaments. The hard part of his duties is to help find umpires to work those state and as well as national tournaments for South Dakota umpires and tournament directors. This might be a harder job than anyone realizes, but Rich has been up to the challenge every year. He has done a great job of filling those spots, often on very short notice as our deadlines have shrunken to a 5 to 12-day window after the tournament entry deadlines close.

Rich’s involvement includes more than being a umpire. He has held a position as well as being UIC on the Huron Slowpitch Board for years. In 2016, the USA Softball SD association voted for Rich to run the 6-year cycle of  2nd Vice President, 1st Vice, and President of the association. The last 2 summers, although he lives in Miller, Rich has been helping in the recruitment and on-field training of umpires in the Rapid City area along with his other duties.

Rich believes that umpire education and training are vital to the recruitment and retention of umpires. Leading by example, Rich has attended the biennial National UIC Clinics in OKC, starting in 2005, attending everyone including 2021 (COVID) by Zoom. Rich is a familiar face at USA Softball SD Umpire Schools as he attended several as a student before becoming an instructor at every school since 2007.

Former Mens Slowpitch Deputy Gary Harrington. “Over the years I had Rich as my tournament UIC. Rich made my job easy because I was confident that Rich would handle the umpire situations that come up during tournaments.”  Gary adds “Rich’s knowledge of the game as he was a player, umpire, local and tournament UIC, Deputy Umpire makes Rich a qualified promoter of umpires and ASA/USA Softball in the state and region.”

From nominator State UIC Steve Riswold “When I started umpiring softball in 1989, Rich has been part of USA Softball journey. Rich was involved as a player first and as a coach in Women’s Slowpitch, which he led to state and national tournaments.

"When I became the state Umpire in Chief in 2009, I knew I was having an Associate Umpire in Chief and Rich Skorheim was going to be my first choice. He has been a rock with training umpires and running state tournaments! He has been an instructor at every state umpire school since we came on the deputy umpire staff together. For 30 years Rich has been one of the top and most respected umpires in men’s and women’s slowpitch.”

Reservations for the banquet can be made by contacting Mike Dykstra at 605-212-3139 or at [email protected].