Troy's Kyle Ishman makes a leaping touchdown grab over the reach of Averill Park's Dan Galinski during Sunday's third annual Tiger Shootout at Alumni Track at Field at Cohoes High School. (Photos by J.S. Carras - The Record).

Averill Park's Ryan Macari eludes two Troy defenders during the Tiger Shootout. Troy defeated Averill Park in their opening round matchup and beat them again in the loser's bracket, advancing to the championship match against Schuylerville. Schuylerville outlasted the Flying Horses, knocking off the two-time champs.

"It’s a good taste of football before it even starts," Schuylerville rising senior quarterback Austin Bateman said. "I was just proud of the underclassmen, because they stepped up big here."

It's a great event the coaching staff at Cohoes has put on the past three years to get the kids out playing football about a month before preseason practices begin. Without summer leagues or AAU action, high school football players have 356 days a year to think about those nine days each autumn when they get to suit up for their high school team.

With more events like this - as well as the Lineman Challenge at the University at Albany - many of the young coaches in Section II are trying to make football a year-round sport to great success.

"This is probably the first true football outside of team camps this season," Cohoes head coach and tournament organizer James Ducharme said. "Yes, you have team competitions like weightlifting, but this is the first true football event of the season and we need to have more things like this throughout the year. It’s tough with the weather, but we need to do this to keep our kids into football and make football in Section II and New York State better."

Schuylerville head coach Greg O’Connor said his players have peppered him with this line at the end of the past two school years: "Are we going to Cohoes this year, Coach?"
"They love this," O'Connor said. "They get excited for it."

"It’s exciting for the kids to get out here at this time of year and play football," said Troy head coach Jack Burger. "Every other sport has something they can compete in, but for us it seems to be just powerlifting meets and camps. This is a great thing that James (Ducharme) and his staff started a few years ago."

Make sure to check out the full version of the story in Monday's edition of The Record.

Tiger Shootout Champions
2007 – Troy
2008 – Troy
2009 – Schuylerville

2009 Tiger Shootout order of finish
First – Schuylerville
Second – Troy
Third – Lansingburgh
Fourth – Broadalbin-Perth
Fifth – Cohoes
Sixth – Averill Park
Seventh – South Glens Falls
Eighth - Voorheesville