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Mohr presented with officials award

Local umpire honored days after father and mentor\\\'s passing

By Ross Thede 5 min read

Deidra Mohr waved to the applauding fans and, for fun, raised her hand in the air and signaled for an out.

She could be certain her late father David, who had passed away 12 days earlier, was heckling her just the same.

Deidra, a Dunbar native, East Marshall High School graduate and Marshalltown resident, was presented with the National Federation of Officials Association (NFOA) Officials Award during the Iowa Girls High School State Softball Tournament on Thursday, July 23, at Rogers Sports Complex in Fort Dodge.

The award is given annually to one softball official by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), and Deidra was nominated and selected as the 2026 recipient. A 13-year officiating veteran, Deidra was presented with the award by Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union executive director Erin Gerlich prior to the Class 4A championship game.

Accompanied by her mother, Sandy, Deidra was honored to have her hard work recognized less than two weeks after her mentor and father passed away.

"We took him to the hospital and I thought 'I'll tell him I can't do my game tonight' and he said 'no, you better do your game tonight,'" Deidra said. "It was rather fitting, and I knew that he was sitting somewhere on a cloud, giving me his best heckle probably.

"I … I don't have any doubts that he had pride for that right there, so I'm glad that I could represent Mohr -- a little bit of David out there."

Dave Mohr was a long-time official in the state of Iowa, officiating baseball and softball, girls and boys basketball, football and volleyball right up until his 78-year-old body gave out. Deidra was proud to have been mentored by such an experienced official as her father, who called her home from California in 2013 and put her to work alongside himself.

"He did a few youth games with me here and there, and then off I went to college in California," Deidra said. "I kind of ran the gamut (officiating) … and he got wind of that and he called me and goes 'Deidra, I feel my mortality upon me,' and this is the winter of 2013. 'Oh David, what do you want?'

"'I know you've been officiating. Will you come be my officiating partner until I can't walk anymore,' and in the spring of 2014 I came back. I really do owe a ton to him because when I got back to Iowa it was sign up, pay your dues, past the test, go to a two-hour clinic so you can do postseason, and welcome -- baptism by fire."

With Iowa's certification process falling short of the standard she was used to in Iowa, Deidra asked her dad where she was to go for her regular officiating classes.

"I'm your class, Deidra," Dave told her.

"He really was the best option for me to get into officiating, because I was with my dad, because there was already trust, he knew how to make things enjoyable even when it was maybe a confrontational game or things weren't going great," she said. "If it wasn't for that, I definitely would not have stuck with it for so long."

Deidra worked four games during last week's IGHSAU state tournament in Fort Dodge, including as the third-base umpire for the 5A championship game between Waukee Northwest and Ankeny Centennial.

Getting the big games is something Deidra works for, but not for the notoriety or the awards. She is in it to help provide the players with the best opportunity to perform to the best of their ability. The more it means to the teams and the players, the more it means to her.

"We really do care about what we're doing," she said, "especially for the student-athletes at the high school level. We're not out there for us, we're out there for them. We want to make sure that we continue to promote them and let them show all their skills, their elite athleticism and their passion for sports, their team, their school, and all the work that they put in.

"We want to go out there and put our best game out so they can have their best game."

Deidra took up alongside her father as a softball umpire in 2014 and hasn't stopped doing it since. She's added volleyball and basketball to her résumé, too, but recognizes it all started with her father and softball.

That's why her mother, Sandy, wanted to be with Deidra when she received her NFOA Officials Award.

"She said 'Deidra, I want to go with you, will you take me to the foul line?'" Deidra said. "She was all worried that she was gonna be too slow to get out there because they try to run a tight ship (at state softball).

"I gave her my flowers so I didn't end up twirling them around too much. I'm really bad when you give me a prop."

So instead of flailing her bouquet of flowers about, Deidra put her hand in the air and called for an out.

"I wasn't in my uniform, but I had to remind myself who I was," she said. "That was just for fun."

And maybe even a little bit for her dad.

"Literally every time I went over to the hospital to see him, it was 'who won games? Who did this? Were they ornery?'" she said. "He would ask a ton of things and still get a kick out of games or people who were there. Up until his last moments, he was still beaming with pride about the mentorship he had put in me, so I'm so thankful for that."

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