With baseball season around the corner, the Okotoks Dawgs are looking to find suitable accommodations for their recruits who are scheduled to spend the summer in Okotoks.
Billet organizer Richard Kleibrink said the billet families get a lot out of having a Dawg at their house for the summer.
“It’s neat to be able to go to the field and watch the team and have a link to that player,” he said.
Families who wish to take in a stray Dawg will need to provide a meal every so often, as well as a steady supply of healthy snacks to enable the player to perform his best on the field.
While the preference would be for a family within the Okotoks area, Kleibrink added it isn’t mandatory.
More importantly, the Dawgs will be ramping up their search to find billets who are willing to take on more than one player.
While the homes willing to take in one Dawg are always plentiful, Okotoks’ executive director John Ircandia has stated a preference of having two or more players stay at the same location.
“We always have enough single player (billets),” Kleibrink said. “The challenge is getting the two or more players.”
After putting up a player the last three seasons, the Kleibrink family has also taken on a Dawgs Midget academy player for the better part of a year.
Being a billet coordinator, Kleibrink stated he’s seen first-hand the benefits of accommodating a college-aged baseball recruit.
Often times, the player and family will become “long-time friends” and request the same home to stay in if they return the following year. The families who enjoy the experience will often do the same.
“They become familiar with it and they really like it,” Kleibrink said.
Former Dawg shortstop Devon Franklin said his experience living in Okotoks and interacting with the community was one he treasures to this day.
“I come from Vancouver, which is much larger than Okotoks, and when you can go to Tim Horton’s and a group of elderly men notice you and start asking about different players or why we do certain things, it’s a very cool feeling to be part of their lives — even if it’s just for a summer,” he explained.
Of course, none of that would have been possible without a supportive family to live with.
The positive interaction between players and families is what makes the experience worthwhile, he said.
“It’s a good feeling when you can become friends with some fan and his or her family and hope to act like a role model to the kids,” Franklin said.
The children are often the ones who benefit the most from the experience, Kleibrink said.
“If you’ve got kids at home… they just love having a player there,” he explained.
As the Okotoks baseball club works to get the billets finalized, the need for multi-player accommodations is still necessary.
Anyone interested in offering up a spot in his or her home for the summer should contact Richard Kleibrink at 403-938-3905 or at [email protected]
