Gary Godden

Elected : USSSA New York Hall Of Fame in 2009
Inducted : March 2010, Rochester, NY

Gary was born in Oswego New York, but was raised in Rochester where he attended Bishop Kearney High School and played football and baseball. Gary has been married to his wife Sue for over 25 years and they have two great daughters, Lacey and Sarah.

Gary has always enjoyed sports growing up in a family where everyone got involved. His parents help to start the 18th Ward West Boys Baseball league, were Gary and his brothers played as youths. Gary started to play adult slow pitch at the age of 16 where he was able to play against the great teams that existed in the mid 70s. He continued to play for over 20 years but his real passion was officiating. In 1975, Gary joined the ASA where he umpired throughout the Rochester area. In 1983, he attended the first ASA umpires school in Indianapolis Indiana. While an ASA member, Gary was able to improve his umpiring skills by working with people such as Chick Palmer and Roger Gross.

In 1993, Gary was introduced to the USSSA by Gene Williams. A year later, the Sports Officials of the Rochester Area (SORA), a group that Gary helped form, started to work USSSA slow pitch games. Over the next 17 years, Gary has been able to umpire games throughout the country and at all levels of play. In 2001 and 2006, Gary worked the Men's Major World Series at Disney's Wide World of Sports. Additionally, Gary has worked the Men's, Women's, Black American and Military World Tournaments several times. Gary has been thankful for the help and great friendships he has made along the way. Without help from people like John Hart, John Pond, Rick Robertson, Dave Kasouf and Rick Marz, Gary would not have been able to be successful. The places that Gary has been able to go and umpire has made officiating more enjoyable, working with great tournament directors all over the US makes it easy and he would like to send a special thanks to Bob Holland and Jeff Miller for the great treatment he and the umpires from SORA have received.

Gary continues to grow within the USSSA as he has taken on the role of a director for multiple sports. He has received many National USSSA Awards that he knows would not be possible without the great friends that have supported him. He would like to thank all of the members of SORA for their continued support of the USSSA program, and a special thanks to Bob, John, James, Sam, Mike, Tim and his family, without all of you, none of this happens. Sue, Lacey and Sarah thanks for allowing me to be able to enjoy doing something that has taken we away from all of you so many times over the years.