The Selma Parks and Recreation department will open up registration for the 2018 baseball and softball leagues on Monday, Dec. 4 in their office at Memorial Stadium.

Boys and girls from ages 5-18 are encouraged to register for the upcoming season. Everyone, including those who played in 2017, is required to register again in order to play.

There were 53 total baseball and softball teams that competed in the league last season, according to baseball director Gerald Barron.

“That’s normally the fun time for the summer. Hopefully, it’ll help [the kids] stay out of a lot of stuff that they’ll probably get into when they have idle time,” Barron said. “I enjoy it. I think the parents enjoy it. We go out there to the complex and just let them play baseball.”

There are six age divisions for baseball and five divisions for softball. The final date for registration hasn’t been set yet, but the recreation office will work to accommodate late registrants. After registration has ended, there will be a player draft to set the rosters.

“[Registration] normally ends around February,” Barron said. “But we try to accommodate them as they come in. Practice will start after we draft teams, and that will depend on when we cut off the deadline for when they can register.”

Not only can players sign-up for the league, but volunteers can also sign-up to coach for the league as well.

“We have a couple classes that we run and we give them a little training for the volunteer coaches,” Barron said.

Parents will need to provide a birth certificate, or another form of I.D. with proof of age along with the mandatory $10 registration fee. The player doesn’t have to be present in order to be registered, but a parent does need to be present to sign the registration card. The recreation department will also need the players’ shirt size, so they can provide the right shirts to each team.

“The only thing they’ll have to provide for themselves will be gloves, cleats and pants,” Barron said. “We’ll have shirts available for them.”

The recreation department office is open for registration from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Monday through Friday.

“We are excited,” Barron said. “That’s one of our fun times of the year.”