Pictured from left to right are the Okotoks Dawgs directors: Jim Amy (food & beverage), official warbler William Gardner (game day entertainment), founding director John Ircandia, Clint Fystro, former Baseball Alberta president, Matthew Ircandia, who pitched for the Niagara University Purple Eagles, Don Johnston (technology) and Pablo Forno (merchandise). Don McLeod, not shown, Fystro, Gardner and Johnston will be inducted. Photo: Angelina M. Cox Studios.

Dawgs Announce Hall of Fame Inductees
OKOTOKS, Alta. _ The Okotoks Dawgs of the Western Major Baseball League will welcome four inductees into the Seaman Stadium Okotoks Dawgs Hall of Fame. 

The presentations for the class of 2016-17 will be made at the Dawgs Annual Banquet and Fundraiser scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 at the Okotoks Centennial Center.

The Hall of Fame inductees include three longtime Dawgs directors, Clint Fystro of Edmonton, William Gardner and Don Johnston of Calgary and one of the original Dawgs coaches, Don McLeod. Here is some background on each of the inductees:

Clint Fystro: has been a director of the Dawgs since 2003 when the program expanded from a high performance youth development program based in Calgary to include a summer collegiate club. A former executive at Sobey’s, Fystro was a baseball pioneer in the Edmonton area and had served as both president of Baseball Alberta and as general manager of Team Alberta for the prestigious Canada Cup. He was also instrumental in facilitating some key Dawgs business partnerships as the club relocated to Okotoks.

William Gardner: became a director of the Dawgs when the club brought summer collegiate baseball to Calgary following the sale and relocation of the Calgary Cannons. He served three years as Dawgs President and for the past seven years has held the position of Vice President of Community Relations and Game Day Presentation. He has been a member of the Dawgs executive committee as the program expanded from one high performance youth club to an elite baseball Academy consisting of 6 teams from ages 12-to-18 and a highly successful, summer collegiate club. His witty ad-libs, delivered in his golden tones are a highlight at the annual banquet in his official capacity as MC/golden-throated warbler.

Don Johnston: was an original director of the Dawgs dating back to the mid-1990s when the club first formed as an elite high school program. Johnston, who is the Vice President of Technology with Prairie Merchant in Calgary, provided the Dawgs with his expertise in all aspects of technology, including audio and visual presentation, scoreboards, video boards, web site design and management, online ticketing and computers. He was part of the executive committee responsible for the original design of Seaman Stadium and in particular, the Bill McAlpine Press box, powered by FirstEnergy Capital Corp.

Don McLeod: also served on the executive committee that travelled to locales throughout the US as part of designing Seaman Stadium and the Duvernay Fieldhouse. He was the Dawgs youth program’s first technical director of baseball and was instrumental in designing training techniques, including a complete spring training program, that were state of the art. While serving as Dawgs pitching coach, numerous of his pitchers were selected in the MLB Draft. In recent years, on a strictly volunteer basis, he dedicated innumerable hours to the supervision and maintenance of the mounds and infields at the
Seaman Stadium Complex.

The four inductees will join a prestigious group already in the Hall of Fame including principal donors Don Seaman and Doc Seaman, collegiate coaching icon, Blair Kubicek, former Okotoks mayor, Bill McAlpine, Dawgs founding and managing Director John Ircandia, the Dawgs first big leaguer, Jim Henderson of the New York Mets -- the Dawgs first major leaguer -- and Hall of Fame journalist, Bob Elliott, of the Canadian Baseball Network.

Tickets to the Dawgs Annual Banquet may be purchased by calling the Dawgs Ticket Office at 403.262.3294 or 403.995.1280.

Also, a reminder to current Dawgs season ticket holders that they have until Nov. 1 to renew their current seats before the seats are released to the public. Non season ticket holders can purchase tickets not currently on hold. 

The Dawgs are a nonprofit organization that began in 1995 as an elite youth development program based in Calgary. The Dawgs currently operate six high performance youth teams from ages 13 to 18 that have won multiple provincial, national and Perfect Game Championships and a highly successful summer collegiate club that has won four WMBL championships and is currently ranked first in Canada and fourth in North America in attendance averaging over 3300 fans per game. 

The Dawgs home is the Seaman Stadium Complex, a $22 million state of the art facility featuring two stadiums, four diamonds, outdoor and indoor training centers.