Members of the Albany Athletic Booster Club met on Monday evening, July 9, to start planning for the upcoming sports seasons and to begin work on one of their biggest fundraiser of the year, the magazine-type 2018 football program that will be sold at all of the home football games.

“We are in the process of getting ads for the program,” said Booster Club advertising coordinator Shawnee Tischler. “Purchasing an ad is a way to show off and support your child, whether they are in athletics or not. It is for any child at the school.”

The Albany Lions football district schedule was reshuffled recently after Roby ISD announced in June that it doesn’t have enough players to field a varsity team in the fall.

The schedule originally set for members of District 7-2A Div. II after the biennial re-alignment in February had to be scrapped after Roby’s announcement.

Albany High School was among the top 10 Class 2A schools in the state in vying for the University Interscholastic League Lone Star Cup for the 2017-18 school year.

Albany earned 42 points to tie for ninth place with six other schools this year. 

Last year Albany earned 44 points and tied for ninth place, and in 2015-2016 tied for seventh place at 47 tallies.

All three Albany Little League All-Star teams played several rounds deep in the District 5 tournament last week, with two of the squads advancing to the final four.

The 12U team made it to the semifinal round in the winners bracket before suffering their first loss to Wylie, 5-4, last Thursday. Wylie moved on to win their division of the tournament.

“We played really well and had a one-run lead going into the bottom of the sixth,” manager Kevin Hill said. “We made some errors on base paths that gave them a couple of outs they didn’t earn.”

Albany’s three all-star teams picked up victories with the start of bracket games over the weekend in the District 5 tournament.

Both the 12U and 10U earned a pair of bracket wins over the weekend and were scheduled to host a double header on Tuesday.

The 11U team members played their first bracket game on Monday, advancing to the second round of the double elimination tournament on Tuesday against Wylie.

Teams that won on Tuesday were scheduled to play again on Thursday, while a loss on Tuesday would result in a Wednesday game for the next round.

Local junior high and high school students are continuing to take advantage of morning strength and conditioning training at the high school.

The supervised training sessions will be available for three more weeks at 7:00 a.m. on Monday through Thursday, ending Thursday, July 19.

Students have the opportunity to keep in shape over the summer through a variety of weight training, conditioning, and agility drills.

The sessions are open to both males and females regardless of which sports they plan to participate in during the next school year.