By Kathy Thomson
The basketball season in Moran will end next Tuesday when the Bulldogs travel to Ranger for the final district match of the year.
The junior high teams played their last games this Monday, Feb. 10, and the high school girls finished their season in Strawn on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
By Kathy Thomson
The 2020-21 University Interscholastic League realignment announced earlier this month will move Moran to a different district for football and basketball, but leave the Lady Bulldogs playing volleyball in the mixed 1A and 2A District 6.
Football
Moran has been in District 6A for football, along with Blackwell, Loraine, and Trent.
By Donnie A. Lucas
The Lion basketball team picked up their first district win last week against Cross Plains, then added a second mark in the win column this week over Roscoe.
The Lions hosted the Plowboys on Tuesday, putting up a 47-32 win to start the second round of district.
Albany will be at home again on Friday, hosting the Hawley Bearcats. The JV is on the schedule to follow the JV girls at 5:00 p.m., with the varsity boys taking over the court at about 7:45 p.m. after the varsity girls bout.
By Donnie A. Lucas
The Lady Lions locked up a playoff berth on Tuesday with a victory over Roscoe, improving to 5-3 in district for third place with two district games remaining in the regular season.
Albany hosted Roscoe on Tuesday, sending them home with a 45-43 loss to sew up a place in the playoffs.
By Donnie A. Lucas
The future of competitive sports in Albany was reshuffled somewhat this week when the University Interscholastic League conducted the bi-annual realignment of schools, which forms districts for various sports and academic competition for the next two school years.
The local school has competed with Region I schools for sports and academics for the last six years, with the exception of football, which was already in Region II. However, a shift occurred this time around, with Albany moving east to Region II for most competitions.
By Donnie A. Lucas
Workouts for both baseball and softball have started at the high school, with the softball team to open the season on Feb. 18. The baseball team isn’t on the schedule to play its season opener until Feb. 27 during the local tournament.
Softball coach Jimmy Fuentes reported that he has 18 girls out for softball this season, although a few are still involved in basketball.
“We didn’t have any seniors to lose off of last year’s team,” he said. “So we will have more experience, especially since we played so many freshmen last year.”
By Donnie A. Lucas
The Albany Cubs closed out the basketball season at home Monday, winning two out of the three games against Roscoe.
The eighth grade Cubs ended a perfect 16-0 season, according to coach David Fairchild, with their 46-13 win over the Plowboys. The group also went 3-0 in the local tournament last Thursday and Saturday.
By Donnie A. Lucas
Albany High School junior Wesley Estridge placed second at a recent powerlifting meet in Coa-homa, recording a three-lift total of 1,405 pounds.
Competing in the super heavy weight class, the 317-pound AHS athlete had a 600-pound lift in the squat, benched 340 pounds, and had a dead lift of 465 pounds.
This is Estridge’s third year to participate, lifting the last two years for Reagan County ISD. He qualified for the regional tournament last year as a sophomore.
By Melinda L. Lucas
Tyler Beard, who played both ways as a lineman for the Albany Lions, was one of only a few Big Country football players named to Even Ren’s 2019 “True Grit” Team on the Big Country Preps online sports site recently.
Nominations came from coaches in area schools from 1A all the way up to 6A.
By Kathy Thomson
Moran’s basketball season is winding down, and although they have lost most of their district games, all Moran coaches report that their players are improving, learning, playing better, and coming together as a team, even if the scores don’t reflect it.
The junior high teams will close out the season next Monday night when they host Strawn to games starting at 6:00 p.m.
