Two-time football champs Troy High honored with road sign
TROY, N.Y. » Troy mayor along with Rensselaer County executive Steve McLaughlin unveiled one of two gateway signs entering the city to honor the 2016 and 2017 Troy High School football team’s consecutive New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
“There are a number of things that we’re proud about in the City of Troy and I think the Troy City School District is one of those,” City of Troy Mayor Patrick Madden said. “It’s an outstanding school district, not only in academics but also in sports as we’re here to acknowledge here today.”
The sign, at the base of the Green Island Bridge near the intersection of Federal and River Streets, along with another at the base of the Route 2 Bridge acknowledges the back-to-back championships and also includes Head Coach Bob Burns name on it.
“What they’ve accomplished has been celebrated several times over the last couple years, but putting something up that is going to stand for a long time is pretty significant,” Bob Burns said. “As much as my name is on the sign, which I don’t know why, but it is what it is, if we could have listed all the kids names that would have been pretty special too because the things that they’ve done.
“I don’t think people actually realize how special it is, to win 26 games in a row in the largest classification in the state is a pretty special thing and they’re a special group of kids. I’m excited to see what some of them are going to do in the future.”
While the Flying Horses head coach downplayed his acknowledgement on the permanent sign, his players full supported the decision.
“It couldn’t have been done without him, I think he deserves his whole name up there, he definitely deserves every single bit of it,” New York State all-state linebacker and incoming RPI freshman Matt Ashley said. “The amount of time he puts in, we’re graduating and he’s not getting paid for us to lift at 5 a.m. in the morning and high school kids lifting at 6 a.m. in the morning.
“I think he deserves it all, all the time he puts in, and it really goes
unseen. The pay doesn’t show what he’s actually doing and deserves every spot on the sign for that.”
The graduating group of Troy football players means more to Burns than putting up consecutive wins and state titles.
“I’ve been coaching at Troy High 16 years, I’ve never been to graduation because I’ve always had something else going on, I promised these guys that I would be there because how significant the kids that they were,” Burns said. “They’re special human beings that you hope that you can get some down the future. We had a special group a few years back and you wonder ‘ Well, will we ever get kids that are that good?’ We have.
We have tremendous kids here that are willing to accomplish great things. They’ve done everything I’ve ever asked them to do and they’ve done more than that. It’s easy to coach a group of kids that are this committed to being successful as these guys were. I don’t just mean from the start of practice, all year round.”
Throughout the past two years the squad has been
honored with individual medals after each championship, rings and a plaque and banner that will be a permanent part of Troy High, but the sign informs anyone entering the Collar City of the Flying Horses accomplishments.
“This city is a special place, as much as some people like to say some
negative stuff about it, I’ve lived here my entire life and I love this city,” Burns said. “I love the people, I love coaching the kids from the City of Troy, and they just have that edge that you are really looking for as far as coaching.
“Coaching them in the sport of football is something that is special to this
community; it always has been for the last 30 years. This city really seems to embrace the football program, obviously success helps that, but this is a blue collar town where people work hard to get where they want to be and I think our football team is representative of that fact.”