Results from the Italy Junior High Boys Basketball Tournament hosted in Italy on Saturday, January 18.

IHS Baseball parents, coaches and players would like to thank everyone who helped out with the baseball fundraiser this past Friday night. We had several raffles throughout the night and here is a list of the winners:

The Gateway Gators from Dallas deliver Italy their first district loss of the season while Italy’s JV boys get the win over visiting Itasca.

The members of the Italy Economic Development Corporation will have their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 6:00pm. The meeting will be held in the Italy Council Chambers at 105 West Main Street, Italy.

Perri Patterson (1st grade teacher) came up with a great idea to help students spend some quality time with their families. She called her idea the Snow People Family Project and it was only for first graders.

Tomorrow night is Basketball Senior Night inside Italy Coliseum with the Lady Gladiators being honored at 6:00 p.m. and the Gladiators being honored at 8:00 p.m. The JV Gladiator boys will be competing in a game starting at 4:00 p.m. over in Itasca.

On Saturday, the old Italy gym was filled with the sounds of cheering fans, swishing nets and dribbling basketballs as IYAA teams continue to hone their skills.

Congratulations to the following students for making the Italy High School honor roll list for the third 6 weeks of the 2013-2014 school year.

Not even close! The Italy Lady Gladiators hoop their way to a 60-36 district win over visiting Dallas Gateway to force a two-way tie with the Lady Gators for second-place.

The Italy ISD Board of Trustees will have meetings on four consecutive nights this week beginning with Monday, January 27. All four meetings will be held in executive session and will be held in the Italy ISD Administration Office at 300 S. College Street, Italy.

Three games, three exciting endings as Italy’s Junior High boys give it their all against visiting Rice. What a night of exciting basketball!

Michael Dean Entertainment will be performing Karaoke at the Rockett Ranch Café and Music Hall in Milford starting January 24th and continuing every Friday night thereafter.

The Italy Lady Gladiators would like to thank everyone that helped make our hamburger fundraiser a giant success. We especially want to thank the Brinkman Corporation for donating the grill that was raffled off as well as Gerdau Long Steel North America for sponsoring the Burger Dinner.

Both the Lady Gladiators and the Gladiators made it look easy against visiting Arlington Summit to score two more district wins.

Both the Italy JV Lady Gladiators and the JV Gladiators gave it their best shot against visiting Itasca on Friday, with both games exciting to watch.

Italy Police Officer Shelbee Richardson was named Officer of the Year at a ceremony held Tuesday night prior to the Italy City Council meeting.

Editors Note: Video of meeting added 1/26/14, 2:25pm.

Rise To Victory! New Gladiator Baseball shirts are available for purchase. Order forms can be picked up and/or returned to the front reception desk at Italy High School along with payment.

Italy Gladiator Football’s Zain Byers and Trevon Robertson were selected as 2013 Class A All-State players by the Associated Press which is based on regular-season performances.

The mighty Italy Gladiators rose to the challenge against district rival Itasca to secure an all important district win inside the Coliseum.

Boom! The Lady Gladiators countered Itasca’s pre-game intimidation tactics with a resolve to defend their dome court and improve to 3-2 in district play.

It was a wild night in the Coliseum for Junior High basketball with Italy’s 7th and 8th grade teams giving it their all against visiting Marlin.

The Italy ISD School Board will have three meetings, held on three different evenings this week. All three meetings are slated as closed sessions and will be held in the Italy ISD administration office. Each meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00pm. Agendas are attached.

Sarah Levy, Alexis Sampley, and Trevor Davis represented Italy at the ATSSB Area Central auditions in January. Levy became the first Italy ISD student to be selected to the ATSSB All-State Band, as a freshman!

The Italy City Council will have a special meeting on Tuesday, January 21, 2014. The meeting will be held in the Italy City Council Chambers at 105 West Main Street, Italy. Meeting time is slated for 6:00pm.

Italy will play host to a junior high boys basketball tournament on Saturday, January 18th at the Italy High School dome. Both of the IJHS boys’ 7th grade and 8th grade squads will participate in the tournament.

Editors Note: 7th grade bracket was updated 1/14/13 @ 12:45pm.

Orders are still being accepted for authentic Realtree® caps with “Italy Gladiators” embroidered on them. Orders will be accepted through January 17th. Show your Gladiator spirit in style!

The Italy ISD Board of Trustees will have their regular monthly meeting on Thursday, January 16th. The meeting will be held in the Italy High School Cafeteria at 300 S. College Street, Italy, Texas 76651. Meeting time is slated for 7:00pm.

First-year head coach Brandon Gansky and his spirited Gladiators open district with a convincing win over Grand Prairie Advantage Academy.

The Lady Gladiators win big over Grand Prairie and improve to 2-1 in district play behind Kortnei Johnson’s 24-points and 11-points each from Jaclynn Lewis and Tara Wallis.

The visiting West Trojans outlast the Gladiators during a pair of physical games played inside Italy Coliseum.

On Friday, January 17, the Lady Gladiators will be giving away a brand new Brinkman Pro-Series Grill (Model 9424) donated by the Brinkman Corporation. The give-a-way will be the culmination of three weeks of raffle ticket sales by the softball team. There is still time to get your ticket!

The Lady Gladiators controlled the pace in the first-half but Dallas Gateway forced Italy to run in the second-half, allowing the nimble Lady Gators to run away with the district win. Italy’s JV girls did manage to take care of business against visiting Itasca.

On Friday, January 17, while the Gladiators and Lady Gladiators take on the Itasca Wampus Cats on the hardwood inside the Gladiator Dome, the Lady Gladiator Softball players and their parents will be serving up burgers with all the fixings in the Italy High School Cafeteria. Mark your calendars!!!

Members of the Italy Fire Department take a break to enjoy a holiday meal and to be recognized by the department for their terms of service.

In order to re-organize and re-stock, the Italy Food Pantry will be closed for the month of January. The Pantry will open again on Monday, February 3rd at 5:00pm.

Italy’s JV and varsity Gladiators take a break from the holiday break to take on visiting Blooming Grove in a couple of close games inside the Coliseum.

The JV game between Italy and Venus was close throughout while Italy’s varsity Gladiators tried to overcome a 20-point deficit in the second-half, and for a moment, they had a chance.

Enjoy memorable moments from the Italy’s 2013 Christmas Parade and Festival that featured Santa and Mrs. Claus, the Grinch, “Boo-oo,” and cowboys, indians and the, “Birdman,” Ryan Parrott who was this year’s grand marshall.

When you walked into Trinity Mission Thursday mid morning all the staff members were wearing their pajamas! Why you ask? Because they were having their Christmas party for the residents and they wanted it to be like everyone just woke up on Christmas morning ready to enjoy Christmas.

The Italy ISD school board recognizes students and their recent academic achievements before diving right in to the nuts and bolts of maintaining the school district.

The Italy Christmas Concert lifts everyone’s spirits with three school bands performing holiday music to a packed gymnasium.

Italy Junior High’s Lady Gladiator squads left it all on the court against visiting Venus with the 7th grade team finishing strong and the 8th grade team winning big.

Marie Wood has been the administrator on and off for Trinity Mission for over 15 years. She has decided to retire and spend more time with her family. Her gentle manor and smiling face will truly be missed.

The Tree of Memories at Trinity Mission was held last Thursday evening to honor and recognize the residents that passed away this year. Family members of loved ones that passed away this year were invited to come and share memories about their loved ones and put an angel on the ‘Tree of Memories’ in their name.

While Santa is making a list and checking it twice, there are visions of softballs, cleats and line drives dancing around in the heads of the Lady Gladiator softball team. Practices will start in mid-January and the girls are ready to get the season started.