By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Spring is finally here, and with it comes the beginning of spring youth sports. At the Carbon County Recreation and Events Complex, spring soccer and Junior Bees baseball are open for registration. CERCUT Director Kourtney Cox joined the KOAL Newsroom to discuss these openings and other upcoming county activities.
Opening the discussion, Cox spoke on CERCUT’s Easter Egg Hunt, which is set for Saturday, April 12, at noon. This year’s rendition brings some exciting changes: “One exciting thing that we’re adding to the Easter egg hunt this year is an adaptive area for people of any age with special needs. We’re going to have an area just for them that they’ll be able to join in and experience the Easter fun.”
Also coming up for the County is the start of spring youth sports. The first sport up is youth soccer, with registration closing on April 6. “This is for pre-K to sixth grade. It’s going to be a four-week program. There are eight nights in total. We’ll have Tuesday and Thursday evenings set aside for soccer. This is really a great time for them to play the game, learn fundamentals and learn to love the sport.”
Registration for the County’s Junior Bees baseball program is also open.” This and I would say, Junior Jazz are probably two of our biggest sports. But Junior Bees is getting ready to get underway. It’s tee ball for ages three to five and coach pitch for six to eight years old. Games are going to be played on Thursday evenings at the Carbon Event and Recreation Complex softball fields.” Registration will close on April 30.
To sign up for these events, visit carbonrec.com.
Shifting her attention to the Carbon County Fair, Cox covered the Battle of the Bands, which will return in 2025. “It was great last year. We had four absolutely top-notch bands that played in our Battle of the Bands, and they all sounded so different. We had classic rock covers. We had heavy metal. We had country music. And it was enjoyable. The crowd filled the bleachers; they were around the stage and just had a good time.” She continued,” The registrations are open. So if we have any local bands that would like to jump on and compete, there is a registration fee, which is refundable when you show up the day of. Plus, we’ll actually pay you a performance fee when you show up and play. And then you have the possibility to open the Helper Arts Festival and win an even bigger prize.”
Cox then spoke on the County’s motocross track, which is rapidly approaching its opening date for the season: ” We have people that are calling all the time. They’ve been calling all through the year, but we’ve got some great projects going on out there right now. So it’s not quite ready to be open yet.”
Currently, the opening is scheduled for April 8. Cox explained some of the upgrades coming to the facility,” What it is we’re improving the parking area. So, instead of being dirt and tumbleweeds, it is now going to be all smoothed and graveled. We are looking to add a covered pavilion. So we’ll have some seating out there. We’re going to be improving the speaker and PA systems out there and doing a couple of things through the summer just to step up the whole experience for people.”
Closing out our conversation, Cox discussed the return of the Black Diamond Rodeo and the progress the rodeo committee is making. “We actually went up to Vernal the weekend before last, and we went to the Marvelous Extreme Bull Madness event. This is hosted by the stock contractor that will be working with us for the Black Diamond Rodeo. And it’s an extreme bull riding event, but we had all access to this event through the weekend. So we got to see their planning and preparation. We got so many good ideas and made so many good contacts.”
The Black Diamond Rodeo will be held June 6 and 7. Tickets are available online at BlackDiamondRodeo.com.
For more information and to stay up-to-date with Carbon County Events and Recreation, visit carbonrec.com or the organization’s Facebook page.