Thanksgiving Shootout starts Friday at Monroe

ALBANY – For the third year in a row, Monroe High School will host the Thanksgiving Shootout here in Albany. This year will include area teams as well as teams from the Atlanta area and from Florida.

“We started this because there was nothing in the area for girls basketball around the holidays,” said Monroe girls coach Jennifer Acree. “This year we are including boys games as well. This has gone over really well and last year we had a sellout.”

The shootout will actually be the first real competition for the Monroe Tornadoes as a home game in the new gymnasium. The teams competed in a scrimmage earlier this month, but this will be the first real home game, said Acree. Unfortunately, the Monroe girls will not be competing. Acree said one of the teams backed out and in order to honor the commitment of the other schools, she withdrew her team.

The Monroe Tornado boys will be competing and will face Lee County Friday evening at 8:00 and they will play Early County at 6:30 on Saturday. Other local teams competing will be the Dougherty County girls playing Early County girls at 3:30 Friday, and then Jonesboro at 2:00 on Saturday. The Dougherty boys will play Early County at 6:30 on Friday and North Cobb Christian at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Lee County girls will compete on Friday at 5:00 p.m. against Jonesboro.

All of the games will be played at Monroe High School’s new gymnasium in Albany. Tickets for admission are $10 each.