In June 1968, a group of Marines and Sailors met aboard Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton to form a sports officials association that could meet the Special Services Intramural Sports Department need for sports officials, hence the Margarita Officials Association (MOA) was founded. That small group of officials, under the leadership and guidance of Frank Wilheim, Chuck Guy, and Chuck Silling set the foundation and vision, which has evolved into today’s MOA, a well-known, highly respected, amateur sports officials’ organization. 

 

From the beginning, the MOA’s primary goal has always been to provide the best trained, highest quality sports officials to meet our contractual obligations. The MOA has evolved over the past 55 years, from providing officials for several sports to include: Baseball, Football, Soccer, Softball and Volleyball. Today, we are known as the “Softball Group”, with specific, dedicated emphasis in Fastpitch and Slowpitch softball. As noted above, we started on the Base, but today, our umpires work softball games at all levels throughout the United States and internationally, while we maintain our home base in North County, San Diego.

 

Our name, logo, and brand are widely known and recognized throughout Southern California and the country. This is evidenced by the fact that our members “routinely work late into Sunday” because of our training, ethos, and commitment to professionalism and excellence. Our unique partnership with USA Softball (SoCal)has given our members the necessary training opportunities to succeed at all levels. Regardless of the “letters on the uniform”, which may include, NAFA (Men’s Fastpitch) NCAA (College), NFHS (High School), USA (JO/Slow-Pitch), or any of the numerous other groups that call for MOA Umpires, when we walk on and off field, we are all MOA umpires first, and foremost.