BLOOMINGTON — Kyler Stork lived one dream and now is working on a second.
The former Eureka College men’s basketball player is in Vero Beach, Florida, for Spring Training. He’s not taking in America’s pastime as a spectator on vacation; Stork is working as an umpire.
“My first-ever job, actually, was umpiring,” Stork said.
Stork’s path, however, to becoming an umpire featured one major detour — having a professional basketball career. Stork, 27, played five years of hoops in the Armenian and Portuguese leagues before getting a chance to officiate at baseball’s highest levels.
His mom, Marie Stork, gets the credit for jumpstarting this second career, sending him to an umpire clinic as a 13-year-old. Stork was told he needed to work when he wasn’t in school, so he called balls and strikes at the local little league
That would be his summer job for the next 13 years.
“I only did it really to like pay the bills,” Stork said, “make quick cash. … It was a really good way to still make money when I came home. You watch the game and if you love it, you’re basically getting paid to watch baseball. … It always stuck with me through the years.”
It wasn’t until the Fourth of July weekend four years ago that he really became enamored with umpiring. His buddy asked him to join him in Milwaukee where the pair umped 25 games.
According to Stork, it was then where he ‘fell in love’ with umpiring.
“Maybe I could make something out of this as a career,” the 2016 Normal West graduate said, recalling what he was thinking, but still playing overseas. “Maybe not now, because I love basketball. It is my job, but I think there is something in officiating for me one day. It was always in the back of my mind.”
Each summer when his basketball season finished, Stork donned the umpire gear and hit the diamond.
Last year, he officiated 279 games across three states — Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin — from April to mid-October, while working anywhere from 8U to Illinois High School Association contests. Stork had officially been bitten by the umpire bug, but this was only the beginning.
In July 2025, he attended a one-day MLB umpire camp at American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, with 167 other participants. There the clinicians ran through the fundamentals and provided umpiring tips.
A few days later, Stork received word that he was one of the five finalists to be invited to MLB umpire camp in January.
“That’s when it kind of hit my heart,” he said, “that, like, I really got a shot at this.”
MLB umpire camp was a 25-day ‘grind,’ Stork says. He woke up early and stayed up late learning the ins and outs of being a professional umpire. Days were packed with classroom sessions, on-field work, daily exams and intense study sessions.
Luckily for Stork, he survived and was assigned a 16-game minor league slate in March with his first game this past Tuesday.
“I never really thought,” he said, “I could go straight from 17U baseball to the MLB, it doesn’t make sense.”
Stork, though, isn’t the only local umpire working pro ball.
Dunlap grad Alex Tosi got called up to be a big-league umpire in May 2019. Three years later, he earned full-time status, having now worked Wild Card games as well as in the 2025 National League Division Series.
“I would love to meet him one day,” Stork said. “He’s a hell of an umpire. He’s made a great career. He kind of flew to the Major Leagues, so if I could be half as good as him, that would be amazing.”
More than anything, Stork is beyond grateful.
“I’ve been gifted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “… I’m looking forward to the challenge and trying to embrace it. Obviously, you can’t be a perfect umpire, but I’m going to strive to be a great official.
“… If I can get to the MLB, that would be great.”
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: How this former Eureka College basketball player chases new dream as umpire
Reporting by Adam Duvall, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
