When Big Ten umpires are assigned Northwestern games, they know not to leave their rulebooks behind — Sharon Drysdale has made a career of making the men in blue look like fools.

In a crucial weekend series against Michigan last month, Wolverines hitter Melissa Taylor bunted and dropped her bat onto the ball that was dribbling in front of the plate. The umpire called the runner out, then reversed his call when Michigan coach Carol Hutchins came out to argue.

Bad decision.

Drysdale immediately popped out of the Wildcats dugout and protested the reversal, saying since the bat hit the ball in fair territory the call should be batter’s interference. The poor official was forced to check the official rulebook, which Drysdale co-authored, and reverted back to his original call.

Although the Cats were already leading 6-0 in the fourth, the protest preserved pitcher Lauren Schwendimann’s perfect game, which she nailed down one inning later.

“Of course Sharon knows the rules,” a Michigan parent yelled. “She wrote the darn book.”

NU players agree that umpires and opposing coaches must be on their toes in any game where Drysdale is on the field. With the mind-boggling substitution rules in softball, confusion often arises concerning batting order, pinch runners and fielding positions.

She’s clearly the most knowledgeable coach in the Big Ten, so umpires have started to challenge Drysdale more often, hoping to stump her.

“We always ask each other, ‘Why are they arguing?'” freshman infielder Alyson Schulz said. “She wrote the rulebook. There’s no way she can be wrong — we always win.”

The Cats skipper is undoubtedly one of the few veterans in softball who understands all the regulations.

Though she will sometimes question a judgment call, Drysdale is much more aggressive in her arguments concerning a rule, often forcing an unwilling umpire to consult the rulebook.

Although acknowledging the complexity of the softball laws, fully understanding the game is vital for every coach, Drysdale said.

“Any coach who doesn’t know the rules backwards and forward is missing the boat,” Drysdale said. “It doesn’t seem to be appropriate to expect your players to weight-train, condition and prepare, and then as a coach, lose the opportunity to influence games through the rulebook.”

A physical education major at Brockport (N.Y.) State, Drysdale took courses on officiating before receiving her license to umpire softball. After taking the head position at NU in 1979, Drysdale became the first chair of the NCAA Rules Committee.

Despite her status as an expert on regulations, Drysdale said her gender influences how she disputes calls.

“Most female coaches can’t have an in-your-face type of approach with an umpire — it doesn’t work as well as a male coach to an umpire,” Drysdale said. “We have to be a little more sensitive and politically astute.”

A 1994 inductee to the National Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame following her 500th career win, Drysdale is known for being a mild-mannered, strategy-oriented coach who is able to focus on her players individually. A great motivator and optimist, Drysdale was faced with one of the toughest challenges of her 22-year NU career last spring.

All-Big Ten pitcher Jackie DeBoard, who notched 24 wins in her first season at NU, quit the team prior to the 1999 campaign. DeBoard did not fit in well with her teammates and said she felt her freshman season — in which she started 37 of the Cats’ 50 games — had completely burned her out.

And without her best player, Drysdale had to regroup a frustrated and confused team. NU struggled in 1999, finishing 30-31 and failing to qualify for the Big Ten tournament.

“She let us know that that was not a thing you do to your team,” sophomore second baseman Kathryn Gross said. “She emphasized responsibility to your team, not to let your team down.”

DeBoard’s departure still affects the team to this day.

“I think we’re still recovering from that,” Drysdale said. “It affected recruiting for two years and the make-up of our team, but I think it taught the rest of our team something about responsibility and teamwork and commitment.

“It caused them to look inside at themselves and at each other in terms of the kind of person they want to be and what they expect of each other.”

The Cats and Drysdale rebounded this season, forming a strong team bond to earn a spot in the Big Ten tournament, which begins Thursday with a game against Wisconsin.

NU’s season had its peaks and valleys, enduring a 26-game road swing to open the year before sweeping No. 13 Michigan at home last month. But through it all, Drysdale kept the team focused and found the positive aspects in every game.

“We never go away from a team meeting feeling down,” junior Brooke Siebel said.

Even with her Hall of Fame status, almost 700 career wins and three trips to the College World Series with NU, players do not feel at all intimidated by Drysdale’s success. The Cats consider Drysdale more of a teacher than a coach and said her experience has been critical to their understanding of the game.

As she embarks on another trek toward a conference title, Drysdale credits her assistant coaches and players over the years for her success.

“Softball has been my life as opposed to a hobby or a job or something like that,” Drysdale said. “We talk about it as being just a game, but for the people who play it, it’s often much more than that.”

As her coaching career grows longer and longer, Drysdale has started to entertain the possibility of retirement. The decision to step down will come when she can no longer handle the strain of coaching and maintaining the intensity that has defined her legacy.

Yet the NU skipper has no immediate plans to hang up her cleats and put her rulebook on the shelf.

Until umpires start proving her wrong, Drysdale will remain a fixture in the Cats’ dugout.

Said Schulz: “Unless they have to drag her off the field, she’s never gonna leave.”