The Okotoks Dawgs play their season opener Friday, June 1, up in Edmonton as they get the ball rolling on the Western Major Baseball League season.

They held their media day Thursday, May 31, and new Manager Mitch Schmidt is very upbeat about the season ahead and the kids he's coaching.

"What we understand is that if the kids want to be here, they're going to play here. Well, guess what? It's starts with me. If I set a good attitude, a good effort as a coach, they're going to have a good attitude and a good effort as a player."

Schmidt says he wants to see the players succeed and win.

"Guys are going to tell you that I'm a players coach. And I still will yell and scream and I will get into them when they do something wrong, but I also understand that physical mistakes happen, mental mistakes won't. And that's what we're going to do. Our goal is to make these guys better players when they go back to their collages."

Schmidt says fans can expect plenty of offence from his crew.

"We got guys who've got power and we're going to go from gap to gap. We're going to hit some home runs, but we've also got some guys that are going to cause chaos with their ability to steal bases."

The Dawgs play their home opener Saturday, June 2, when the Medicine Hat Mavericks come to town.

First pitch goes out at 7:05 p.m.