[Dion]

Okotoks Dawgs lament first-round WMBL playoff exit

And the WMBL, a predominately summer college league, is unique in its demands from players.

“Part of it is coming to terms with a changing college landscape,” Dawgs managing director John Ircandia said on Thursday. “Some of the top college players play much longer now. You don’t get them until later, and when they get here, some of them have had a pretty long season.

“That’s a factor.”

“It’s obviously disappointing; this is the third year in a row that we’ve exited in the first round of playoffs,” Ircandia said. “Of those three last years, this is the first time we finished first in the regular season and won the President’s Trophy … to me, that’s a great accomplishment. And I also can’t say enough about the fan support — that’s part of what we want to do.

“But I do like to win, and we’ve already had some conversation about what’s missing in our recipe to take us to the next level.”

All WMBL teams face the same challenge of recruiting players at the end of their college season and convincing them to play a few extra months before returning to school.

But as well as trying to attract the top university/college talent from Canada and the U.S. to compete for the Dawgs at the palatial Seaman Stadium with their first-class training facilities, Okotoks is focused on developing players from within their academy system.

Over the course of the season, they had six players who were still high-school aged.

“That’s good news and it’s challenging news,” Ircandia said. “It’s good news that we’re going in the right direction of having locally developed products that come back for the summer and have the opportunity to play in front of our fans here. But it’s transitional in the sense that they’re still freshmen and still in high school and still young … it’s a challenge.”

Ircandia said he was pleased with the first-year coaching staff, including head coach Tyler Graham, who currently serves as an undergraduate assistant coach at Oregon State University, and pitching coach Andy Peterson, also out of Oregon State.

“Over the course of the year, they got some better insight to how competitive the league is and the quality of players they need to win,” Ircandia said. “They wouldn’t have had that before. They have a better idea of the player that’s necessary to succeed … those are things we’re looking forward to.”

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