It’s been a busy month for Jamie Tellier, the city of Selma’s new baseball and softball director.

Tellier took over his position on June 9, right around the time Selma all-star teams started playing in district and state tournaments. He’s been running full speed ever since.

“It’s been crazy jumping into the all-star baseball season and trying to get everything ready for that and doing it on short notice when you jump in and the rosters weren’t made and doing all that paperwork,” he said.

Tellier takes over the position from Lebo Jones, who is serving as the city’s interim parks and recreation director. Jones, who began working for the recreation department in 2013, was named the interim director in April after the passing of Elton Reece.

Tellier spent the last five years as the retail sales manager at Jones Interstate Tires Co. but he has a strong background in sports. Growing up in Southern California, he played football, baseball and basketball and even participated in semi-pro football with the Orange County Makos.

Tellier’s parents moved to Selma in 2000 and on a visit to see them he met his future wife, Arsella. Once moving to Selma, he served as the Morgan Academy quarterbacks coach for a short time before taking a position as program director at the YMCA of Selma-Dallas County in 2006.

After spending a year at the YMCA, he became the athletic director of Cathedral Christian Academy.

Tellier’s background experience in sports separated him from the other 21 candidates, Jones said.

“When we interviewed people his resume stood out above everybody else’s,” Jones said. “He has experience working at the YMCA as a program director and also has been an athletic director before at a school and a former athlete, he knows all the ins and outs of baseball and softball. The experience he had was overwhelming.”

Jones said he and Val Jones, the city’s personnel director, recommended three candidates and Mayor George Evans made the final decision.

With baseball season still in full swing, Tellier probably isn’t slowing down any time soon.

Four Selma teams are still participating in state tournaments and this weekend the Dixie Majors State Tournament will be held at Bloch Park.

“It’s been fun. The all-star teams this year have been great,” Tellier said. “We have four teams in the state tournaments and each team has a legitimate shot to go past the state tournament into the world series.”

Whenever the season does end, Tellier said he will meet with Jones and figure out what improvements can be made to the city’s baseball and softball leagues. He hopes to improve the department’s communication to all of the parents and coaches in Selma.

“The whole problem that even before I took this job that I noticed was the weather wasn’t really cooperative for us this year,” Tellier said. “The thing they had trouble doing was to let everyone know ‘Hey we are having a delay or games have been cancelled.’ One thing I think we can do better is communication and communicate to the parents and the teams about delays.”

Tellier said he thinks social media or even a recreation department website could help with that issue.

The new hire has lowered Jones’ workload, who was essentially working the job as the recreation director and the baseball and softball director since April. He said the rest of the recreation staff helped pick up some of the slack during that time, but Tellier’s hire has taken a little stress off of everyone.

“He’s been a huge help because for a couple months I was pulling double duty, doing the baseball and softball directing and also directing the whole department,” Jones said.

Evans said Jones remains the city’s interim director. He declined to comment further on when a director would be named.