HIGH POINT — Miss Randolph County Tori Gross earned a Top 16 finish at the Miss North Carolina competition last week in High Point. Taylor Loyd, Miss Statesville, was the winner. Gross received two scholarship awards during the week of competition totaling $2,750.
“My work as Miss Randolph County is not finished, and I cannot wait to finish out my year as I serve our great county,” said Gross after the competition. Gross, of Trinity, is a graduate of Randolph Community College.
Archdale native Hannah Welborn-Lewis, competing as Miss Sandhills, was a preliminary evening gown winner and finished second runner-up to Miss North Carolina. Parker Sterling, of Randleman High School, represented Randolph County in the Miss North Carolina’s Teen competition.
Carter was rated among Randleman’s top producers in several categories during her senior season on the volleyball team. She was the leader among the Tigers in service percentage and second on the team in aces.
She also made strong contributions in blocks and kills per set. She played as an outside hitter and defensive specialist.
Randleman racked up a 17-6 record in 2022 for its fifth consecutive winning season.
Carter was also a member of Randleman’s Piedmont Athletic Conference champion girls’ basketball team.
** During the summer, we recognize seniors from the past school year.
The U.S. Forest Service, an agency under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture, is proposing to change recreation fees at two sites in the Uwharrie National Forest. The public has been invited to provide input to these proposed fee changes for 60 days from June 23 until August 22.
According to the Forest Service, the goal of these changes is to improve the visitor experience through site upgrades paid for by the collected fees.
At this time, the fees are only a proposal. After public comment is received, the Forest Service will assess the comment and concerns of the public and then present the fee proposals to the Southern Region Recreation Resource Advisory Committee (RRAC) at a future date.
“The Uwharrie National Forest provides a variety of recreational opportunities to visitors, and we are continually working on ways to enhance the visitor experience,” said the Forest Service in a press release. “Collections from recreation fees are reinvested at the field level and used to address maintenance needs. The proposed recreation fees will help us provide additional recreation opportunities and support our goal to provide safe, well-maintained, and sustainable recreation opportunities for the public to enjoy.”
The proposed fee changes the Forest Service seeks comments on are the following:
Campgrounds
** Yates Place Camp – new $50 group site fee per night with a group size of 50 people.
Trails
** Wood Run Mountain Bike Trail System – new $5/rider per day fee or a new $30 annual pass (these fees would only apply to mountain bike use)
Additionally, the following fee proposals went through the required participation process in 2019 and are awaiting review by the Southern Region Recreation Resource Advisory Committee:
** Badin Lake OHV Trail System – increase from $5 to $15/trail vehicle per day, and increase from $30 to $60 for the optional annual pass (As proposed, this fee would be phased in over a two-year period).
** Yates Place Camp – new $10 per night fee for single sites.
In 2004, Congress passed the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (REA), which allows the Forest Service to retain funds collected at certain recreation sites and use these funds locally to operate, maintain, and improve these sites. The resources derived from the collection of frees help provide quality recreation opportunities that meet the modern expectation of visitors and create a more financially sustainable developed recreation program for the benefit of future generations.
Under REA, all new fees and any fee changes must be proposed to and approved by a citizen’s advisory committee. Committee members represent a broad array of recreation interest groups to help ensure that the Forest Service is proposing reasonable and publicly acceptable new fees and fee changes.
The public is invited to comment on the proposed fee changes by August 22. For more information, please visit www.fs.usda.gov/goto/nfsnc/recfeeproposals. To provide comments about this fee proposal for the RRAC to consider, please contact Logan Free at (828) 257-4256, by email at SM.FS.NFsNCfees.usda.gov, or by mail at:
ATTN: Recreation Fee Proposals 160A Zillicoa Street Asheville, NC 28801
ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Elections is making a push to replenish its roster of poll workers.
Melissa Kirstner, director of the Randolph County Board of Elections, has described an urgent need to secure more workers.
“We always really scramble to find people to work,.” Kirstner said. “It’s a long day, and a lot of people can’t make that commitment.”
Workers are needed for early voting days as well as Election Day.
Kirstner said more than 25 percent – and perhaps up to one-third – of the election workers have dropped off the list in Randolph County in recent years, largely beginning with the 2020 election during the pandemic.
About three dozen potential poll workers attended the county’s recruitment fair last week. Kirstner said it was the first time that the board of elections held such an event specifically focused on signing up more workers.
“We think it went very well,” Kirstner said. “We did a lot of explaining and set up a (mock election venue). We wanted to walk them through what it’s like. They might have been to the polls as voters, but seeing it from the other side, it’s a little different.”
Poll workers must be Randolph County registered voters or students age 17 and older. These are paid positions.
Kirstner said the drop in available poll workers became heightened because of concerns during the pandemic. The average age of poll workers in Randolph County has been about 67 years old, she said.
In the past, the board of elections counted on past workers continuing in those roles and word-of-month messaging to fill slots. Kirstner said it was clear in 2022 that more efforts were needed to restock those positions.
“It’s a struggle everywhere,” she said. “We’re trying to build it back.”
There are municipal elections this fall in Randolph County. For Kirstner and her staff, this is the build-up to the presidential election next year.
“We’re gearing up for 2024,” she said. “We’re trying to get ahead of the game. If we can get them in and started for this November, that will help, and they’ll get an understanding of what it’s about.”
Students at the age of 17 can serve as assistants at the polls. They need permission from parents or guardians and approval from their school principal.
There will be ongoing recruitment for poll workers in the county. The board of elections is planning to hold another fair in September at Randolph Community College.
Also, the date for the next regular business meeting for the Randolph County Board of Elections has been moved to 1 p.m. July 10. The board will consider a one-stop implementation plan (also known as early voting) for the fall’s municipal election.
A North Carolina state senate resolution honoring the life and memory of former state Sen. Jerry Tillman passed last week.
Tillman spent nine terms in office representing Randolph County before stepping down in 2020. He died Feb. 4 at age 82 in Greensboro.
In part, Senate Resolution 753 states: “The Senate wishes to express its highest appreciation of Jerry Wayne Tillman, former State Senator, as a citizen and public servant and extend its sympathy to his family for the loss of its distinguished member.”
The resolution’s sponsors included David Craven, who has filled Tillman’s seat. Senior president pro tem Phil Berger of Rockingham County and Durham Democrat Mike Woodard joined Craven.
The motion to adopt passed 46-0.
Tillman, a Republican, was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in addition to his other committee roles. He was the Senate majority whip.
“Jerry was an incredible advocate for Randolph County,” said Craven, whose 29th district also includes Anson, Montgomery, Richmond and Union counties. “He was a dedicated educator, coach and statesman.”
Tillman had been active in the Archdale/Trinity Lions Club. He was also a member of the Archdale Friends Meeting.
At the time of Tillman’s death, Berger, the Senate leader, said: “Jerry was truly larger than life. He was never afraid to share his thoughts on a particular bill and would often lighten the mood by regaling us with tales about music, racing, and baseball.”
SOPHIA – Kyle Larson has entered Wednesday night’s CARS Tour $10,000-to-win race at Caraway Speedway in a No. 5 car prepared by JR Motorsports.
He will be seeking his first victory in a Late Models car in 10 years since winning on Daytona International Speedway’s backstretch short track.
Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, will serve as a teammate to current series points leader and defending champion Carson Kvapil.
“It’s really cool that Kyle is coming to Caraway with us,” Kvapil said according to information provided by the track. “He’s a NASCAR champion and one of those guys who can drive anything and be really competitive right away. As a team, we’ve been pretty good at Caraway, with the win last season in the Old North State Nationals, and I know how our cars perform there. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to race with him.”
Layne Riggs will also be on hand piloting the No. 62 Late Model owned by Kevin and DeLana Harvick. Harvick, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Justin Marks are the owners of the series. Harvick plans to do triple duty Wednesday night as an owner of the series, a car owner and a father as his son Keelan competes in the Legends cars 25-lapper.
Other drivers expected for the 125-lap feature for the Late Models are Brenden “Butterball” Queen, Connor Hall, Chad McCumbee and Deac McCaskill. Local drivers Ronnie Bassett, Jr. and Dylan Ward are also entered in a field expected to exceed 25 drivers.
There will be a feature race CARS Tour Pro Late Models as well. Also on tap are features for the US Legends Cars and the Bandoleros.
Prerace activities begin at 6:30 p.m. and race time is 7 p.m.
On Saturday night, the speedway will hold the Rusty Harpe Memorial with the SMART Modified Tour along with Challengers, Mini Stocks, 602 Modifieds, UCARs and Bootleggers.
Asheboro’s Jay Dillard reaches second base as the ball skips away from Boone’s Carlos Amezquita during last week’s game at McCrary Park. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
ASHEBORO – The Asheboro ZooKeepers, a college summer league baseball team, finally got to play a game in their home ballpark.
Even that situation lasted only so long.
It was a winning endeavor for the ZooKeepers, who topped the visiting Boone Bigfoots 9-6 on Thursday night at McCrary Park.
The second game of the Coastal Plain League doubleheader was wiped out during the first inning because of lightning and then rain.
Jared Beebe and Tyler McPeak both smashed two-run home runs in Asheboro’s victory. Beebe also had a run-scoring single and McPeak provided a two-run double. Ethan Snyder was the winning pitcher.
On Saturday night at Martinsville, Va., the ZooKeepers split a doubleheader with the Martinsville Mustangs. Asheboro won 3-1 before falling 8-2.
In the victory, Win Scott pitched a complete-game in the seven-inning tilt and Jay Dillard’s two-run single broke a tie.
On Friday night, the ZooKeepers prevailed 11-10 in 10 innings against the High Point-Thomasville HiToms at Finch Field. Jarrett Pokrovsky drove in four runs, Dylan Driver scored three runs and McPeak had three hits.
The winning at home didn’t last as the Macon Bacon topped the ZooKeepers 6-5 on Sunday night despite McPeak’s home run. The ZooKeepers led 5-3 through six innings.
That result dropped Asheboro’s record to 6-10.
Earlier last week, the ZooKeepers’ final two scheduled games at their temporary home at UNC Greensboro Baseball Stadium were rained out.
After a pair of home dates this week, the ZooKeepers will be back for a July 4 matchup with the Holly Springs Salamanders.
Randolph County Post 45’s Grat Dalton reaches for the plate but is tagged out by Cleveland County Post 82 catcher Hagan Hoyle. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
ASHEBORO – Randolph County Post 45 won all three games it completed in its first games this year at McCrary Park in Asheboro.
The weekend victories against three different opponents pushed Post 45’s record to 14-1.
With stadium renovations incomplete, the Randolph County team played road games or at Randleman High School in the first few weeks of the season. Then games early last week were rained out.
The three-day event at McCrary Park began with a game with Morgantown (W.Va.) Post 2 suspended by lightning Friday night with Post 45 up 4-0 in the third inning. The game ended up being cancelled.
Post 45 defeated Cleveland County Post 82 by 4-1 with Samuel Asbill logging six innings and Tanner Marsh finishing on the mound in Saturday’s first game. Marsh doubled twice and drove in two runs.
The dramatics came against St. Mary’s (Md.) Post 255 on Saturday night. Braylen Hayes hit a game-winning three-run home run to complete a comeback to lift Post 45 to a 7-4 victory.
Post 45 rallied from a 4-1 deficit. The four-run seventh included Hunter Atkins driving in the tying run. Robert Garner was the winning pitcher with three innings of no-hit relief.
On Sunday, Hayes knocked in three runs in a 14-5 triumph against Morgantown. Connor Adams was the winning pitcher. Hayes, Marsh, Atkins, Pierce Leonard and Josh Meadows were all credited with two hits.
Southwestern Randolph’s Adam Cole runs behind teammate Eli Gravely during a 2022 football game. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
Southwestern Randolph product seeks more fast times in football
ASHEBORO – Adam Cole figured out pretty early that the best way to make an impression was to do it fast.
He sprinted to a special high school career for Southwestern Randolph.
It mostly came about through football and baseball, allowing his foot speed to set him apart.
By his senior year, he became the face of the football program.
“It’s kind of a role I have to take,” he said. “It’s not like I control it. I definitely like it. It gives me a sense of responsibility, too. I like that. I definitely think I’m a leader on the field.”
That helped translate into a record career, setting the school standard for career touchdowns. He was a receiver and cornerback.
A center fielder on the baseball field, he gave track and field a try and ended up in the Class 2-A state meet as a junior.
But football has had his attention.
“I’m just not this big, huge guy you’d look at and say he’s going D-I,” Cole said this spring. “I’m 180 pounds.”
While the speed component is nice, a commitment to build himself as an overall athlete allowed him to excel.
“I was playing at 150 pounds last year,” he said last August in reference to his junior season. “I’m about 170. I want to be about 185. Just playing baseball and football and going to camps every day, I really haven’t had a day off this summer. It’s definitely not letting me gain as much as I want to.”
The workload largely paid off as Cole ended his high school career by being selected as the Male Athlete of the Year in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
Faster, faster
Cole’s speed puts others in awe, but he looks at the fine print.
“I’ve always been fast,” he said. “I was running a 4.7 40(-yard dash). That’s honestly terrible for a receiver if you’re trying to go play college football. I’ve put in a lot of work over the summer. I’d get up early before we had baseball practice or before football practice, go do field work. I’d go do work. I work out every day. I went from a 4.7 40 to a 4.4.”
For Southwestern Randolph, Cole’s speed gave the Cougars a valuable weapon.
“Fastest dude I’ve seen around here,” said Easton Clapp, a classmate and quarterback. “No one can keep up with him, if not the best athlete we got. Crazy fast. He can run routes like crazy.”
Opponents knew it, too.
“He’s crazy fast,” Randleman linebacker Thomas Dobias said. “He’s probably the fastest kid in our conference, for sure.”
Prior to his freshman year, Southwestern Randolph coaches had an inkling Cole might be an impact player. They had him work with varsity players in summer camps.
“I started enjoying it because I knew by my sophomore, junior, senior year, I would really be one of the best around,” he said.
A broken ankle mostly derailed that first season in high school. He called his junior season the best when he scored 23 touchdowns.
Cole accepted the attention that followed.
“It makes me play better because I know I have a standard to play up to,” he said. “I know people are watching and really expecting a lot of me. I like that. I like the pressure knowing I have to be something. It just gives me a sense of confidence.”
As the touchdown totals soared, his reputation as a speedster grew.
“They joke about it all the time. Yeah, they know,” Cole said of reaction from teammates. “I don’t remember any time in four years of high school football, I don’t think I’ve ever been run down.”
Betting on himself
Cole is joining the East Carolina football program as a preferred walk-on. Division I scholarship offers weren’t coming his way, but he didn’t want to settle for anything else.
“I’m not trying to be cocky in any way, but I feel like I’m more talented than to go D-II, D-III,” he said. “I’m just betting on myself. I’m going to work my way up and I think I’ll be on scholarship after a few years if I work as hard as I can and everything goes to plan.”
Here’s Adam Cole at Southwestern Randolph football practice last August. (Bob Sutton/Randolph Record)Adam Cole had a notable baseball career while with Southwestern Randolph (here) and Randolph County Post 45. (Bob Sutton/Randolph Record)Adam Cole competed in select track and field meets for Southwestern Randolph. (Bob Sutton/Randolph Record)
Yet he sensed interest from the Pirates and assistant coach Roy Tesh, who was his primary recruiter. Cole’s workout last year in Greenville made a difference.
“I just showed out at that camp,” he said. “They talked to me more consistent than really any other school did which is surprising.”
At the outset, he’ll be pegged as a defensive back.
“I would rather be scoring touchdowns, but I like defense, too,” he said.
He might also try punt returns and kickoff returns.
Too fast, this time
While getting to spots on the field faster is generally a bonus, it doesn’t always have the greatest results.
That’s what happened in the Cougars’ third-to-last football game last fall. Randleman’s Chesney Welch made a catch and took off toward the end zone.
“It was a play across the field and I chased him down and punched the ball out,” Cole said. “When I punched, I hit just his elbow with this pinky right here. It snapped this bone right here.”
He was pointing to his right hand.
But on that mid-October night, Cole wasn’t finished. He stayed in the game, ending up filling in at quarterback in the Cougars’ 34-7 loss.
“I played through the game,” he said. “I didn’t really feel it until I came off.”
It marked his final high school football game. The next day he went for an exam. Surgery was scheduled.
Cole sent a photo of X-ray to Welch, who probably could have done without a reminder of the sequence.
“Adam running his 4.3 came down and poked it out,” Welch said. “You don’t want to be chased by him.”
Even now, there’s a sliver of satisfaction for Cole that came from that play. He not only caused the fumble, he recovered the ball.
Cole said he made the most of the rehabilitation.
“My grip strength increased because I did therapy for it,” he said.
Adam Cole puts down a bunt for Randolph County Post 45 during last year’s Southeast Regional. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
Burning up base paths
Cole’s baseball numbers might suggest a future in that sport. He led the Cougars this year by batting over .490 in addition to swatting four home runs. He had been a mainstay in the Randolph County Post 45 lineup for two years, and even spent a couple of weeks with the team this spring prior to football commitments in Greenville.
“I don’t really enjoy baseball like I do football,” he said. “I go out of my way to go put in work for football. Baseball, I just kind of go out there and play.”
Played it quite well. Classmate Tyler Parks, a North Carolina baseball signee, saw up close what Cole’s speed could do.
“With baseball, speed doesn’t slump,’ Parks said. “He can fly. He has always been fast. As he got older, he just got faster. He just keeps getting faster. I work out with Adam. It’s just unreal how quick he is.”
Show it on the track
While Cole’s speed wasn’t camouflaged, it hadn’t been on display in the most obvious way – on the track – until his junior year.
“I was joking around with the track coach: When you going to put me on the roster and let me run?” Cole remembered.
Next thing he knew, he was sprinting in the 100 meters and then taking off to go play baseball.
Adam Cole competed in the 2022 Class 2-A state meet. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
It resulted in more than a spring fling. Cole became the Class 2-A Midwest Regional champion in the 100 in 2022.
“I didn’t expect to go out there and win regionals, and went to the states,” he said. “I’d never run track in my life. Definitely pretty cool.”
For the most part, track became a part-time pursuit.
“I don’t practice track,” he said. “I just go to baseball.”
But extra sprinting had side benefits.
“It’s really good for me,” he said. “Because baseball isn’t a ton of running, it’s keeping me in shape. Keeping me fast. Last year when I needed to go to camps to get recruited, it helped my 40-yard dash a lot. It’s helped my form. It’s a good way to compete.”
That might have been the biggest factor. A chance to test himself in a different forum.
“Really, I just like to compete,” he said. “That’s the big thing.”
Still, at this spring’s Randolph County Championships, Cole said there were doubters. He referred to it as guys talking smack.
For his part, Cole won the 100 and 200 meters.
“It’s in one ear and out the other,” he said. “I’m a baseball player. I’m fast, too, and I can do good in things like this. Coming out here not training for track and just being able to win all these track meets like I am makes me feel good. Really, I like to win.”
