February 6, 2023

Official Okotoks Dawgs News Release

The Okotoks Dawgs Baseball Club and the Dawgs Baseball Academy (the “Dawgs”) are proud to announce that founding and managing director, John Ircandia, has been ranked as the 15th Most Influential Canadian in Baseball by the Canadian Baseball Network (“CBN”).

The annual rankings are a “Who’s Who” in the sport and include current and former Major League owners, executives, players, scouts and broadcasters.

Manager of the 2022 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, Rob Thomson rose to the No. 1 ranking followed by Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos, Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano and Blue Jays owner Edward Rogers of Rogers Communications coming in at No. 4.

Among the other notables recognized were Jays’ broadcaster, Dan Shulman; Farhan Zaidi, GM of the San Francisco Giants, Hall of Famer, Fergie Jenkins, Dodgers star, Freddie Freeman, Team Canada guru, Greg Hamilton and TSN sportswriter, Scott Mitchell. Former Dawgs and college standout, Vincent Ircandia, now CEO of rising sports analytic firm, StellarAlgo Corp., was recognized as 65th on the prestigious list.

In listing John Ircandia, the CBN noted that as reported by Ballpark Digest the collegiate Dawgs finished 2022 with the third highest attendance in all of summer collegiate baseball with average attendance of 4,216 per game and a total of 113,825 for the season. Remarkably, the Dawgs also welcomed their millionth fan to Dawgs Baseball at Seaman Stadium.

On the field, the club broke the WCBL record for regular season wins and capped 2022 with their seventh WCBL Championship. Other highlights cited were the WCBL All-star Game hosted by the Dawgs which attracted an over capacity crowd of 6,001 fans and the club’s annual Breast Cancer Fundraiser which saw the Dawgs bring the total raised for that worthy cause to over $500,000.

In addition to the summer collegiate club, the Dawgs operate a highly successful youth baseball academy. The top 18U Dawgs team was ranked third among elite travel teams in the United States by Perfect Game. Dawgs Academy graduates once again earned scholarships to such prestigious NCAA, Division 1 programs as Oregon State, University of Oregon, Washington State, University of Washington, University of Tennessee, Gonzaga and the University of Utah.

On the professional front, former Dawgs included Jim Henderson (Calgary, Alta.) who parlayed his professional career with the Brewers and Mets into a pitching coach position with Milwaukee, Alejo Lopez who in 2022 batted .262 in 56 games with the Cincinnati Reds and Andrew Kittredge who posted a 4-1 record with 3.15 ERA with the Tampa Bay Rays. Outfielder Tristan Peters (Winkler, Man.) went from being a WCBL All-star with the Dawgs to a draft selection by the Brewers and most recently an invitation to big league camp with the Tampa Bay Rays. Dawgs were also featured in the 2022 MLB draft led by Oregon State’s Jacob Melton who was selected in the second round by the Houston Astros and Gavin Logan (Oyen, Alta.) who was taken by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ninth round.

For the second consecutive year, CBN also recognized Vincent Ircandia, currently founder and CEO of sports business analytics firm, StellarAlgo Corp. Ircandia is the former vice president of business operations with the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers. StellarAlgo has recently been in the news for adding the NBA to an impressive client list that includes the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, a number of NBA, NFL, NHL teams as well as the US Open Tennis Championships.

Another former Dawgs player, Sammie Starr, now assistant coach of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, was also recognized. He enjoyed a stellar playing career in the Baltimore Orioles organization before assuming his current coaching career with UBC.

Scott Mitchell, who did an outstanding job as sports editor of the Calgary Herald and has moved on to be the leading reporter of the Blue Jays with TSN, came in at No. 99 on the prestigious list.