With opening day approaching, the Selma Recreation Department is preparing for another year of youth baseball and softball.

Lebo Jones, Selma Recreation Department baseball and softball director, said the first pitch of the season will be thrown on April 12, and the registration process went well.

“Registration has been going good. We’re at about the same numbers that we were last year,” Jones said. “We’re still looking for a couple of coaches right now, but we’ll have those filled soon.”

Jones said anyone interested in coaching can learn more at the recreation department.

“We’re still looking for some volunteers. We’ve got one opening in softball and one opening in baseball still,” Jones said. “We are looking for coaches still at this time. They can just call here at the stadium or come by and see us.”

As with past seasons, the recreation department leagues will provide baseball and softball for a wide variety of ages.

“We start at 5-years-old all the way up to 19. We’ve got 5 and 6-year-old softball, 7 and 8-year-old softball, 9 and 10, 11 and 12, and we have a 14 and under fast-pitch league,” Jones said. “Then in baseball we’ve got 5-6, 7-8, 9 and 10, 11 and 12, 13 and 14, and then we’ve got 15 through 19 year olds.”

Jones said each age group plays anywhere from 12 to 16 games, and then they’ll have playoffs and all-star teams out of the leagues.

He said the department is currently getting the schedules of games and coaches in order.

“We’re in the process [of scheduling] now. We just had our drafts the last two weeks, and we’re in the process now of getting all the coaches schedules and when they can coach,” Jones said. “We should probably be working on the game schedules next week.”

Overall, Jones is expecting it to be another good year on the diamond.

“I think we’re going to have a great year,” Jones said. “We’ve got a lot of kids signed up. The weather’s been cold, but it’s starting to warm up, and I think we’re going to have a great year.”