The Okotoks Dawgs Baseball Club hit the international map in a big way July 28 with the opening of the Duvernay Field House. Located next to the world-class Seaman Stadium in east Okotoks, the field house is being touted as state-of-the-art facilities built around the best technology and venue available.  Coaching and management staffs are confident that the facility will provide the best possible environment for training of young, up-and-coming athletes and for the Okotoks Dawgs’ collegiate team.

“We retain our position as the No. 1 drawing baseball team, professional or otherwise, anywhere in Alberta. In any world and in any language, this clearly demonstrates success,” says William Gardener, Dawgs vice president of promotions and community events.

“This field house is world class. There’s nothing like it in Canada and it rivals many of the facilities at the top collegiate programs in the United States. We are taken aback by the splendour of this facility.”

David Robb, head coach of the Dawgs Collegiate Program, will also head the new program at the Dawgs Baseball Academy.

Photo: Julie-Carole Vincent/ Calgary Journal

Gardener says the facility continues to take his breath away. “I come through the battle-zone of construction that is around it and there are times that I literally have to stop as I look around this facility. It really continues to take my breath away. “Is this heaven? No,” says Gardener, “My version says it’s Okotoks!”

The nearly finished facility houses a 25,000-square-foot turf infield in a year-round, indoor training facility that is on-par with the likes of the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay and the Metrodome in Minneapolis. “It’s simply the best surface available for indoor training,” stressed Gardiner.

Also housed in the field house is the DARTFISH computer system, and its computer, video, camera and training aids; a fully equipped weight room, three administrative offices, three clubhouses, a trainers’ room and fully equipped change rooms.

The facility will be used not only by the Dawgs collegiate team but, as a full-time, year-round facility, by the community and youth players and students of the new Dawgs Baseball Academy, also announced on July 28.

Starting Sept. 22, high performance players will be accepted into the Academy and its training program. Thirty-year veteran professional coach and former Cal State-Fullerton player, David Robb, will head the program.

Academy members will benefit from year-round indoor training and skills development with the Dawgs’ professional coaching staff and will participate in games against other Canadian college programs and in an October 2009 series against Phoenix-area junior colleges. Players will also participate in the Arizona fall showcase in Peoria, Ariz.

The Duvernay Field House construction costs of $2 million were paid from donations by Don Seaman and his father, the late Doc Seaman, together with Michael Rose former CEO of Duvernay Oil Corp and recently of Tourmaline Oil Corp.

With the opening of the Duvernay Field House and the addition of the year-round Dawgs Baseball Academy, the Seaman Stadium facilities are now on par with the best NCAA Division 1 collegiate programs in the United States, Robb says.

Matching the quality of their facilities, the Okotoks Dawgs themselves are at the end of a stellar regular season with a 34-12 record. Ballpark Biz recently ranked the Dawgs as the No. 1 baseball draw, professional or otherwise, in Alberta, No. 1 summer collegiate draw in Canada and in the Top 10 draws in North America. The Dawgs played their last regular season games in the last week of July, with playoffs starting July 31.