High Point Central suspends football; local teams work to replace those games

RANDLEMAN — After High Point Central suspended its varsity football program for at least one year, the Randleman Tigers will search for another opponent for next season’s Week 9.

Randleman High School Athletic Director Jake Smith says he is waiting until the next Piedmont Athletic Conference meeting, which is scheduled in a couple of weeks, before deciding on which road to travel.

“We’ve worked out a few scenarios, but we’re going to wait until we meet as a conference and see what dates everyone has for High Point Central,” Smith said. “Then we’ll make some decisions. But I really don’t think it’s going to have a huge effect. We’ll play a six-team conference when it comes to football.”

Asheboro also had to fill an open spot for next year following HPC’s decision, but the Blue Comets found a home-and-away partner for the next two seasons in Scotland County. The Fighting Scots will visit AHS this fall and then Asheboro will travel to Laurinburg in 2027.

Scotland County, like Asheboro a 6-A school, finished 8-4 last season and second in the Tri-County 6-A/7-A conference with a 4-1 record. The Fighting Scots reached the second round in the playoffs last season with a 49-40 win over Terry Stanford in a home playoff opener before a 35-34 loss at Jacksonville.

HP Central suspended its varsity football program for one year after the Bison completed an 0-10 season in which they were outscored 523-0. Coupled with last year’s 0-10 record, the Bison have been outscored 1,062-19 in the past two seasons.

“We are taking a one-year pause and will be rebuilding with our junior varsity team,” High Point Central principal Mike Hettenbach said in a statement.

High Point Central has struggled the last several years. HPC has endured 11 straight losing seasons with the last winning season coming in 2014 when the program went 9-4.

HPC started this past season with a 59-0 loss at Asheboro, with its closest game being a 37-0 loss to Southwest Guilford, which finished 1-9. RHS captured a 42-0 win over HPC on Oct. 17.

Every game HPC was involved in during the 2025 season used a running clock.

“I think in the grand scheme of things in the sport of football, the numbers have gone down with schools who have had solid programs,” RHS varsity football coach David Diamont said. “It’s other sports as well. Kids are specializing and this could very well be an issue if that’s the way things are going to go.”

Diamont, who just completed his first year at RHS, comes from Burns High School in Cleveland County, one of the top counties for high school football in the state of North Carolina.

Recently, East Rutherford High School and Patton High School have taken a similar measure by suspending the varsity football program and going to a strictly jayvee schedule.

It is unknown if next year’s junior and senior classes at High Point Central will be allowed to transfer, although Guilford County Schools currently allows parents to send their children to out-of-district schools.

Smith said he doesn’t believe programs will begin to fold if not experiencing success.

“I don’t think teams want to lose that much money,” Smith said. “Athletics-wise, football brings in the most money depending on how well you do.”