The Lady Lions won two of three games during the local basketball tournament last week, improving to 13-8 for the season as they prepare to open district competition this week. Albany will host the Cross Plains girls on Friday, Jan. 4, with the JV team taking the court at 5:00 p.m.

The varsity Lion basketball team won three out of four rounds at the Windthorst tournament last week as they prepare for the opening of the district race.

New Year’s Day 2019 wasn’t exactly balmy, with temperatures in the low 30s for most of the day and freezing drizzle on Wednesday, but it wasn’t the extreme of one year ago, when the mercury dipped down into the single digits on both New Year’s Eve and the next night, Jan. 1, 2018.

County officers starting new terms of office were sworn in during a brief ceremony held in the courtroom of the Shackelford County Courthouse last week. County justice of the peace James Breeden officiated for most of the informal meeting on Tuesday morning, Jan.

Color photo packets taken of high school varsity and junior varsity girls, and junior high boys and girls basketball, taken by The Albany News in December are ready for pickup.  Pictures of the varsity and JV boys teams are scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 17 at 3:00 p.m.

The varsity Lady Lion basketball team opened district with a win over Cross Plains last week, then traveled to Stamford on Tuesday for the second league game.

Signup is underway for Little Dribblers basketball and local boys and girls from eight years old through fourth grade are invited to join. “Players must be at least eight years of age on Jan. 1,” said organizer Clint Chapman.

The youth fifth and sixth grade basketball teams will play their first games of the season on Saturday, Jan. 12, with the four local teams competing in both the Albany High School gym and the Albany practice gym. Basketball games will take place every hour from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

General hunting season for white-tailed deer ended last weekend, but antlerless deer and spikes can be harvested until Jan. 20, and a special Youth-Only Season also extends through that same weekend.

The Lady Bulldogs suffered defeat in both of their games over the Christmas break. Moran hosted Lueders-Avoca for an 11:00 a.m. match on Dec. 31, and the visiting Raiders left with a 46-22 victory. The varsity girls also dropped their first district bout on Friday, Jan.