What a somber time it was this weekend for the Cuba Youth Football Program (CYFL). An established program of over 20 years, which the City of Cuba Board of Alderman decided to not accept the contract for us of the fields at Hood Park in favor of an unestablished program. Which at, the time of writing this, was in breach of their contract because they did not even have proper insurance to run their program.
Due to the Board of Aldermen rejecting the contract for the CYFL, the board members of the CYFL were forced to clean out the concession stand and the storage buildings located at Hood Park this weekend. Storage building that were either donated or bought by the CYFL. Storage buildings which the City of Cuba says now belong to the city because they hooked up electric to the buildings which means they have "maintained" the buildings. Even the scoreboard at Hood Park was either donated or paid for by the CYFL.
Due to the lack of investigative reporting and false accusations made by the president of the Crawford County Football League, some mistruths have been spread about what actually will transpire for 2026. First of all, the Crawford County Football League will not have NFL Flag Football as previously reported. CYFL has the contract with NFL Flag and will be the only league allowed to participate in NFL Flag. Secondly, the Crawford County Football League will not be playing in the Four Rivers Conference. In fact, their application to join the conference was just declined. And yes, they did try to join this conference. However, the other league which the Crawford County Football League is trying to join is the Rolla Youth Football League. A league which only plays in Rolla and does not play in other towns. So the fields at Hood Park will not even been used to play games on. Lastly, if the Crawford County Football League needs to use the fields at Hood Park, then why did they ask the City of Steelville for exclusive rights to use their football field?
The Crawford County Football League was created by a disgruntled member of the CYFL with full support from ex-members of the parks and rec board. And the president of the Crawford County Youth Football is currently running for Board of Aldermen. So, if elected, will she step down as president of the Crawford County Football League due to a huge conflict of interest to be both on the Board of Aldermen and president of the Crawford County Football League.
In conclusion, I believe it is truly sad what is being done to the CYFL and the youth of not only Cuba, but the surrounding area. We, as a community, should be supporting established programs. Not telling them that we do not care about your program or the youth of the community, which it is affecting. We need to be better as leaders of the community so our children can look to us as role models. Parents with integrity that they can look up to.
Scott Y. Halbert
