Sports

Building a nucleus for the future, the Ennis girls basketball team had plenty of desire and fight on display in a 55-43 home loss to Waco’s University High School on Friday.

Head Coach Keith Howard has released the schedule for spring tennis and once again his Ennis team is favored to win the district and advance into the state playoffs.

Progress continues upward at Italy under HC Craig Horn, with this year’s edition winning the District 8-2A championship at 5-0. The Gladiators have qualified for the playoffs in each of his three seasons, going 4-7, 8-4 and 9-2.

Flying out of the blocks, Ennis jumped to an early 12-point lead and held off any comeback attempt by Corsicana in a 70-56 triumph on the road on Tuesday.

Stunned as if a good boxer had just been caught with a startling left hook and a stultifying right, Red Oak a local basketball power for years, was stunned by Ennis, 61-56, on Friday, Jan. 8.

It wasn’t the encore they preferred, though following an 11-1 season, the best-ever for Class 1A Avalon, the team overcame a miserable start to somehow qualify for the playoffs. It didn’t last long, but it did point the Eagles toward an optimistic future.

Jason Bachtel, 40, was hired on Jan. 7 as the new head coach at NCAA Division III Howard Payne University. A 2003 alumnus at HPU, he was introduced at a press conference in Brownwood (170 miles SW of Ennis) the following day.

Class 5A, Division II football entered Week 5 of the six-week odyssey known as the playoffs. It’s not easy to reach the final, though Ennis done in five times in 32 years of making the playoffs. This year’s Lions, ranked No.

An early 2-0 start in District 11-4A has boosted Ferris (9-6) and first year HC Joshua McGee out front in what is expected to be another tough boys basketball race this season. The Yellow Jackets, 23- 11 last winter, struggled to finish 3-7. They hope to learn from the experience.

Ted Shurtleff and Palmer have built a 9-4 record by winning six of nine games away. His team returns to play four of their next five in the friendly confines on West Jefferson. They will need a measure of success to recover from 2-4 start in District 18-3A.