City council hears youth football fanfare

Janet Imrick
Randolph Hub

Local sports took the spotlight at the Asheboro city council's December meeting. Blue Comet Youth Football players and cheerleaders led the agenda on Dec. 5, with a meeting with Mayor David Smith and council members to celebrate their victories.

Excitement built before the meeting began, as Asheboro citizens walked past the players in their jerseys and the cheerleaders with their pompoms, waiting in the hallway with their trophies from the Randolph County Youth Football League championships.

Ben Hughes, administrator and coach of the Blue Comets, presented the players and invited the cheerleaders to perform one of their pep routines for everyone in the meeting room.

Hughes called this a "memorable season, to say the least." The 6U and 8U teams tied for first and second respectively in their conferences. 10U and 12U placed first in their post-season tournaments. 12U was first in the regular season with 8-1 and won the Super Bowl on Nov. 9 at Southeast Guilford High School.

"We need a big trophy case built," said Ryan Patton from the Asheboro school board.

According to Hughes, roughly 200 children signed up to play football or cheer this season. "The future of Blue Comet Football and Cheer looks promising," he said. "I can't wait to see what happens when these kids reach middle school and high school."

Council makes changes to Zookeepers lease

The meeting started with football and ended with baseball, as the city council returned to the proposed 10-year lease for Asheboro Zookeepers to use McCrary Ballpark. 

At November's meeting, City Attorney Jeff Sugg informed them that the team had not yet signed the lease the council approved this year. The council asked Sugg to rewrite the lease based on the team's feedback.

One of the most notable changes was replacing a combined right of first offer and right of first refusal with solely a right of first refusal. Sugg said the Zookeepers asked that it be one or the other. The city inserted that phrase initially to try and keep the Zookeepers in Asheboro if the Pugh family were to ever sell the team.

The lease lays out that if the Zookeepers were to breach that right of first refusal, then it would immediately terminate the lease, and the city could retake possession of the park.

Sugg also laid out the responsibilities of Asheboro Cultural and Recreation Services, which otherwise conducts business in the park according to the policy manual. 

The lease would give the Zookeepers the highest priority for scheduling games from May 1 to Aug. 15. If any post-season games overlap with games played by the American Legion or Asheboro High School's baseball team, then the recreation services director would resolve the conflict in the best interests of the city.

Since the lease was not in effect when the Zookeepers played this year, the city council recommended raising the first year's annual rent from $1,000 to $2,000. Plans are to increase the rent incrementally over the next 10 years, culminating in $5,000 for the last five years.

The council agreed to have Sugg finalize the proposed lease so that they can hold a public comment period at the next meeting. Even though the city council cannot take a final vote sooner than Jan. 9, if the Zookeepers agree to the changes and sign the lease, then it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.