{"id":21051,"date":"2025-05-01T11:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T15:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?post_type=story&#038;p=21051"},"modified":"2025-05-01T11:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T15:21:08","slug":"umpire-channel-founder-noah-katz-26-makes-waves-with-his-wootank-win","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/01\/umpire-channel-founder-noah-katz-26-makes-waves-with-his-wootank-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Umpire Channel founder Noah Katz \u201926 makes waves with his WooTank win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p>Last week, Noah Katz \u201926 threw out the first pitch at a Worcester Red Sox game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As tosses go, it was a good one from the former high school varsity third baseman. But it wasn\u2019t his most memorable pitch in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On April 8, Katz delivered the winning idea at the second annual WooTank Intercollegiate Showdown, earning the top prize of $3,750 to invest in his business, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theumpirechannel.com\/\">The Umpire Channel<\/a>. Katz launched the media platform several years ago to give people an insider\u2019s look into the world of sports officiating and raise awareness of the profession\u2019s challenges and opportunities. The Umpire Channel has grown exponentially, &nbsp;boasting 315,000 followers and more than 300 million views across social media platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Katz competed against WooTank contestants from Holy Cross, WPI, and Nichols College. In all, $15,000 was awarded for six startups founded by student entrepreneurs, who pitched their enterprises to three Central Massachusetts business leaders, acting as judges. Modeled after the popular \u201cShark Tank\u201d TV show, the WooTank event was held at the Off the Rails restaurant in downtown Worcester as part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startupweekworcester.com\/\">Startup Week Worcester<\/a>. Clark junior William Brothers also was recognized for his start-up venture, <a href=\"https:\/\/nohourvintage.com\/home\">No Hour Vintage<\/a>, a brand and design studio producing clothing from upcycled materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was the second year that Clark took the top WooTank prize. Last year, $4,000 was awarded to Sophie Lee \u201926, owner of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sophpremacy\/\">Sophremacy<\/a>, which sells gothic and punk-inspired jewelry and accessories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-group alignright boxout has-white-color has-darker-blue-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-d8103ccea72d44cd8cb77c6ded4e5a35 is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-12dd3699 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-small-font-size\">With The Umpire Channel, Noah Katz \u201926 has made the right call<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cEvery video I make is a video that\u2019s never been made before.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/05\/with-the-umpire-channel-noah-katz-26-has-made-the-right-call\/\">Full Story \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p>Katz outlined his business model for the judges, leading them through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/05\/with-the-umpire-channel-noah-katz-26-has-made-the-right-call\/\">creation and evolution<\/a> of The Umpire Channel over the last few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was a great experience,\u201d says Katz. \u201cI was able to make some excellent connections.\u201d Throwing out the first pitch at the WooSox game was another perk of finishing first in the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Katz intends to use his prize winnings to invest in new equipment that will help him to continue to produce and refine his content. When it comes to editing videos, he\u2019s largely self-taught. \u201cI learned through YouTube tutorials,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s going to be a busy summer for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/programs\/major\/marketing-bs\/\">marketing<\/a> major. Katz will be umpiring games across the country for the Savannah Bananas baseball team, including at Yankee Stadium in New York, Camden Yards in Baltimore, Petco Park in San Diego, and PNC Park in Pittsburgh, as well as in NFL stadiums in Nashville and Charlotte. He\u2019ll also be filming at the Little League World Series, at some Major League Baseball games, and, likely, at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in late August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As if that isn\u2019t enough, Katz is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the National Federation of High Schools Association in Chicago in late June. The federation is a national organization that develops rules for various sports and activities, provides educational resources, and promotes sportsmanship and student well-being.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for The Umpire Channel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn the last few months, it\u2019s been generating enough to be a full-time job,\u201d Katz says. \u201cI\u2019ll continue to work on it through senior year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Noah Katz \u201926 threw out the first pitch at a Worcester Red Sox game. As tosses go, it was a good one from the former high school varsity third baseman. But it wasn\u2019t his most memorable pitch in recent weeks. On April 8, Katz delivered the winning idea at the second annual WooTank [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21052,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-darker-blue)","story_headerImg":21052,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[225,251,223],"displayed_author":[235],"featured":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-21051","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-humanities","category-business-innovation","category-clark-community","displayed_author-jim-keogh"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Umpire Channel founder Noah Katz \u201926 makes waves with his WooTank win | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/01\/umpire-channel-founder-noah-katz-26-makes-waves-with-his-wootank-win\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Umpire Channel founder Noah Katz \u201926 makes waves with his WooTank win\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, Noah Katz \u201926 threw out the first pitch at a Worcester Red Sox game. 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