Haven Albright’s teammates and coach surprised the Lexington senior before Tuesday’s girls basketball game against Loretto.

Just before the national anthem played, the Golden Bears recognized Albright for reaching 1,000 career points, presenting her with a commemorative basketball signed by the whole team.

“They surprised me. I had no idea any of that was going to happen,” Albright said. “It means a lot to me. I worked really hard for this, and it took a lot of hard work by my teammates. It’s something I wanted to accomplish, but now I want to accomplish a team goal and get to state.”

Albright reached the milestone durning last week’s Danville Thanksgiving tournament. Her total after the Loretto game was 1,019 career points. She scored 19 in Tuesday’s 50-42 win against Loretto (5-1).

Lexington is 5-1, its only loss coming by 1 against Class 6A Austin at the Danville tournament.

“I think we have a really good chance,” Albright said of the Golden Bears chances of realizing her goal of a run to state. “If we play like we’ve been playing so far, we’ve got a good chance to host the area tournament. Defense is the main thing right now. We need to continue to work on that and get better.”

The scoring mark is the second honor in a month’s span for Albright, who was named homecoming queen in October.

Wright, Mask lead teams into semis

A pair of coaches with local ties have led their respective high school football teams into the semifinal round of the AHSAA playoffs.

Former Colbert County and Bradshaw coach Steve Mask has an 11-2 record in his first season as head coach at St. Paul’s, and has led the Mobile school to a Class 5A semifinal matchup at Spanish Fort on Friday.

Meanwhile, Johnny Wright, a former longtime coach at Sheffield and the father-in-law of current Bulldogs coach David Hufstedler, has a 12-1 record in his first year back at Dora, which travels to UMS-Wright in the 4A semifinals Friday.

Mask was head coach at Bradshaw 1990-94 and led Colbert County to five straight playoff appearances in 2002-06, including a state runner-up finish in 2002.

Mask retired from the state school system in 2006 and then coached as an offensive coordinator at East Coweta, Ga. in 2007-08 and was the defensive coordinator at St. Paul’s for the previous three seasons before taking over for Jimmy Perry as head coach.

With a win at Spanish Fort, Mask’s St. Paul’s team would advance to the state title game to play the winner of Muscle Shoals and McAdory.

Wright coached at Sheffield from 1987-99 before his first stretch at Dora in 2001-06. He then coached for three years at Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa and last season at Leroy before returning to Dora before this season.

A win Friday would give Wright his first opportunity to coach in a state championship game in his 25 years as a head coach.

Florence’s Holmes signs with UAH

Florence standout Brodie Holmes secured an opportunity to continue playing tennis beyond his senior season this year, having signed with Alabama-Huntsville.

Holmes, the 2012 TimesDaily Player of the Year as a junior, went 11-4 last season at No. 1 singles. He went undefeated against local competition.

Holmes took first at No. 1 at the sectional tournament net and advanced to the Class 6A state semifinals.

Holmes plans to study Biochemistry at UAH and ultimately work in the medical field.