Bradenton native, former Lakewood Ranch High athlete sets sights on MLB umpire career

During summer breaks from school, Bradenton native Bryan Van Vranken umpired baseball games.

After playing baseball at local schools like Lakewood Ranch High, Cardinal Mooney and State College of Florida, he has plenty of experience with the sport. One summer led him to umpiring for Perfect Game, an organization with showcases and tournaments for amateur baseball players.

“I had a couple people down there say to go to professional umpire school,” said Van Vranken, who lives in Sarasota.

He said he didn’t know what it was at that point. But after his college baseball playing career ended, Van Vranken decided to take a chance by attending the umpire school in Vero Beach, Florida.

“I didn’t get the job the first year, and that’s where I kind of realized I wanted to do it,” Van Vranken said.

The year was 2017 and Van Vranken began his professional baseball umpiring journey on the independent circuit, before returning to school and getting hired for the 2018 season.

Bradenton native umpire aims for MLB

Now, he’s starting his second year in Double-A baseball. Van Vranken begins Friday’s opening day of the minor league season in the Southern League, a league of eight teams in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, where he can continue his goal of reaching Major League Baseball.

“It’s the ultimate goal for everyone to get there,” Van Vranken said.

Van Vranken was playing baseball when he first got a taste of umpiring. He volunteered to umpire Little League games during breaks from school.

His mother, Beth, ran several All-Star district tournaments during the summer months.

But it wasn’t until he attended the umpire school at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach, that Bryan Van Vranken found the umpire career path.

To become an umpire, the schooling was over four weeks. Classroom instruction went over the rules for four hours each morning. Then from 1 p.m. to about 6 p.m., umpire students hit the field to go over what they learned and get experience at each umpiring position.

“We did simulated games with umpires, there’s about a hundred of us down there,” Van Vranken said. “You do that for about four weeks and then if you were selected to move on, you went through an advanced course.”

Van Vranken played high school baseball at Cardinal Mooney and Lakewood Ranch High. He played college baseball at New York Institute of Technology and State College of Florida before finishing his collegiate career at the University of Texas Permian Basin.

Umpiring kept him in the game, and it’s led to his second season in Double-A where he’s trying to progress similar to how a player does before getting called up to the Big Leagues.

“I wouldn’t say we’re exactly the same,” Van Vranken said. “But we have supervisors and evaluators. And they come out and we get evaluations throughout the season, and then we get moved as they see against our peers here and there. You put your time in and work hard and go as far as you can.”