From playing on the field to now standing behind the plate, Gabrielle Potts has always found herself at a Little League® diamond. At just 13 years old, while most were still dreaming of playing at the next level, Potts took a different route — stepping onto the field with an indicator in her hand instead of a glove. What started as just a way to stay involved in the game quickly turned into a platform to give back to the community.
Now, a seasoned volunteer who umpires about 50 games a year is not only calling balls and strikes — she is shaping the next generation of Little Leaguers® and building a connection with the community.
“Little League umpires are more than just rule followers; we end up being coaches, cheerleaders, and even shoe tiers,” said Potts. “I think we all step into informative roles naturally, but during the regular season, it’s knowing you play a key role in the foundation and being someone who the players remember. It’s a community where kids have one more person in their lives giving them support.”
Potts is one of the few female umpires in the Danville, Vermont area, empowering young girls to dream bigger. She never would have imagined her adult self to still be involved with sports, but her dreams have been renewed, and her life is bigger than before.
This year, Potts was selected as one of the female umpires to participate in the second Maria Pepe Little League Baseball® Legacy Series, a weekend dedicated to showcasing girls in baseball.
To learn more about her experience as a female umpire, Little League sat down for a “Full-Count Conversation” with Potts during the 2025 Maria Pepe Little League Baseball Legacy Series.
1-0 Count: As a former player yourself, how, as an umpire, do you like to connect with the players?
I like to start every game by introducing myself to the catcher. I definitely like to read my catchers, but I normally start off with a joke because I feel like it just lightens everything. They have one of the hardest jobs on the field, so I want to start off by making things light, introducing myself to them, and welcoming them to the plate. I also like to make sure they are okay; we both get hit by wild pitches. So, a lot of the time, if they just got hit with a foul ball, I am going to look at them and say, ‘I am going to go get the ball, you stand up and stretch.’
1-1 Count: What advice would you give to a young umpire who is just getting started?
Find a mentor. I think the hardest thing in the world is trying to do any of this stuff alone. Just from when I went down to the East Region and started the umpire clinics there, the mentorship that I have received is huge. I had mentors back home, but they were not pushing for this caliber of game and experience. So, find yourself a mentor because you are going to have tough games. Find somebody that you can release all of that to. Find somebody who can help you through, show you the cool equipment versus the chunky equipment. Find somebody to help you and guide you, someone who is there for the good games and supports you. One of my mentors just umpired a state championship game last year, and I went down with him; it is just one of those things that you can support each other through, and that’s important.
2-1 Count: In what ways do you like to prepare for a game?
There are two different ways I like to prepare, and it depends on whether I am in the field or at the plate. At the plate, I typically like to be alone and do my thing to get in the zone. I am a person who believes that I am a student of the game, and the game is always teaching me something new. I like to go over the hard plays I’ve had, and if this situation happens again, how am I going to handle it? Mentally, I go through a checklist. Do I know these two teams? What did you see the last time they played? I think the more that you can prepare for the normal means that when the abnormal comes, you’re already ready, you’ve discussed the basics. So, now, it’s something different, and you’re not trying to catch up to yourself.
2-2 Count: What inspires you to continue volunteering with Little League and giving back to the community?
I think we all need to step back and look at the experiences we had as kids and think about how we can get back involved with our community. I think as adults, we all have this nostalgia. As an adult who has no children, I have 11 nieces and nephews, so I am always at the ball field. All of them play youth sports, and it was a big part of my life, so it propels me to keep going out there, and it makes a difference. It is one of those things that we all have hard games where we don’t know what our strike zone was, or had a coach going at us the whole game. But, for every game that is like that, there’s a game where the player gets up to the plate and says, ‘you’re my favorite umpire’ or a catcher says, ‘I love when you’re behind me because you’re going to call a fair game.’ So, every time you have a rough game, there are those games that just make up for it, and you know that you’re making a difference. It makes a difference for a lot of people to see women on the field. When you get stopped by a grandma who never had the opportunity to play, and she says, ‘When I see you, it makes me happy because I went through so much, and seeing you out there makes it all worth it.’
3-2 Count: How do you incorporate your full-time job as a graphic designer into your role with Little League?
I started working for myself a few years ago. Before, I was making a few shirts here and there, but now it is more of a full-time business. I have made a couple of the local Little League uniforms or had sponsorships on their uniforms, which has been really cool. I am working on building up a store with my designs that are based around sports. It is one of those things that I try to design based on the local atmosphere and what people are looking for, and it has been really fun for me. This year, being an umpire at the Maria Pepe Legacy Series, I brought an umpire gift for everyone. Everybody got a t-shirt that I designed that has a female umpire on it, which is something that, as females, we don’t get a lot of swag that has a female on it in general. So, everybody is walking home with a ‘Don’t be a lady, be a legend’ shirt.
Interested in becoming a Little League umpire? Visit LittleLeague.org/Umpires to learn more.