Alex Eisen/MDN Souris Valley Sabre Dogs general manager Darrell Handelsman sits in the dugout at Corbett Field in Minot.

Vibrant green artificial turf peeked through a white blanket of snow.

It was Darrell Handelsman’s first glimpse at the new turf, and a welcomed sign in late March that the baseball season in Minot remains on the horizon.

Before the first pitch can be thrown, a considerable facelift is in progress to inject new life into historic Corbett Field.

The renovated ballpark will offer the perfect setting for Minot’s newest baseball team this summer, the Souris Valley Sabre Dogs.

“We are excited to be in such a historic facility,” Sabre Dogs general manager Handelsman said. “It’s got a lot of character and charm to it. All the effort and work the park district and city has put into it just makes it really special. The scoreboard is great and, obviously with this new playing surface, you are not going to find a better surface in the entire state.

“So, we feel like we have been entrusted with a civic jewel here at Corbett Field and we want to make sure we take care of it.”

The collegiate wood bat summer baseball team in the eight-team Expedition League is a month away from the franchise’s first game. With Opening Day on May 25 creeping closer, the excitement to get underway is escalating.

Players and coaches alike are getting ready to make Minot their home this summer.

“I think I drove through Minot to get to Canada one time, but other than that the closest town I’ve been in is Bismarck,” Sabre Dogs head coach Corey Thompson said over the phone while in Alabama.

The hometowns of the 26 players currently on the roster are scattered across the country. The seemingly ever-expanding lineup card lists players from Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Arizona, Washington, New York, Louisiana, Texas, California and Iowa.

It’s a diverse group of guys that Thompson and assistant coach Trey Chambers have assembled, as Handelsman willingly handed over all the recruiting responsibilities to his coaching staff.

“Right now, it’s completely on me and my assistant coach, so if we lose it’s on us,” Thompson said about bringing in players. “It’s all about connections. I’ve only been coaching for five years in college baseball, but playing in college and playing with other coaches that were my teammates before (has helped). Then, recruiting the last two summers with the Waterloo Bucks in the Northwoods League and making those connections with various schools kind of led to a decent roster this summer for the Sabre Dogs.”

Thompson, currently a pitching coach at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, envisions the first-year team being aggressive on the bases with plenty of speed and have the power in the middle of the lineup to drive in runs.

That’s the modern-day formula for not only winning baseball, but for entertaining baseball as well.

“Everybody likes home runs, everybody likes strike outs and everybody likes speed,” Thompson said. “So, honestly, that’s what we are going after. But, more seriously, I’m a pitching guy so I really like athletic pitchers. I’m also very aggressive on the base paths and I will tell that to every opponent that we play that we are going to try and steal some bags. Our 2-3-4 hole, they are going to hit some home runs. But, other than that, everybody else is going to try and steal some bags.”

Some of the impact players to watch this upcoming season include sluggers Hunter Holland and Jake Buser, 6-foot-4 right-handed pitcher Lake Robertson out of the bullpen and two sets of speedsters from separate colleges: Yakima Valley College’s (Washington) Cole McKenzie and Clay Ashworth, and Paris Junior College’s (Texas) Grant Gomez and Levi Dixon.

Making the transition from being names on paper to recognizable faces is a priority.

“We will stay around after every single game, win or lose, and we will sign autographs and take photos,” Thompson said. “Anything to pique the interests of the fans, we will do it.”

While engaging the community and winning will help drive attendance to Corbett Field, defined success in season one (and in general) for Thompson is the development of his players.

After all, this is a summer baseball league for collegiate athletes.

This is also unfamiliar territory for nearly everybody involved. Many, like Thompson, haven’t stepped foot in Minot before — the obvious exception being the local Minot State University products Dylan Roach and Aaron Kern.

So, just having an established ballpark like Corbett Field to call home lightens some of the struggles that comes with building a team from the ground up.

Making history is a nice perk too.

“I’m a big history buff, so to be in these World War II stadiums is great,” Handelsman said. “The neat thing is, as I go around and meet people in the community, almost everybody has a memory of an experience they have had at Corbett. Whether it’s through their kids or themselves or a friend, but almost everybody has been here and knows where it is. That’s great, and we don’t have to educate people on where the stadium is.”

Formerly known as the Minot Municipal Ballpark, Corbett Field has seen tons of teams come through its gates after being built between 1935 to 1937. Minot State, Minot High, Bishop Ryan, Minot Vistas and the Minot Metros called Corbett Field home last season.

The venue hasn’t really seen a sustained attempt at higher-level baseball like the Sabre Dogs since the Minot Greenheads (2000-01) in the Northwoods League or the third coming of the Minot Mallards (1995-97) in the defunct Prairie League.

Prior to this endeavor, Handelsman spent a few days in Minot back in 2000 as a head coach of an opposing Northwoods League team that squared off against the Greenheads.

“In summer collegiate baseball, I know given some of the other places I’ve been to, you get to go to some of these historic places where big-time players have played, ex-major leaguers and where all these great things have gone on,” Handelsman said.

Corbett Field is no expectation.

The Minot Mallards of the Manitoba-Dakota Baseball League from 1950-57 and Northern League from 1958-60 and 1962 laid the foundation for what makes Corbett Field so unique. Decades later, it’s hard to imagine that baseball icons Leroy “Satchel” Paige, Hank Aaron, Joe Torre and Roger Maris once played on the recent overhauled dirt diamond.

Yet, Corbett Field still stands as a reminder of the past and a place that will preserve America’s national pastime well into the future.

Now, in a few short weeks, the Sabre Dogs forge their own legacy on the revamped hallowed grounds and restore the once lost appeal of late-night summer baseball in Minot.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.