Impressive debut for Cougars’ Young
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
When Tyler Young decided he was going to return to the football field for his senior year, he wanted to make sure he was ready to contribute.
”Over the summer we had a bunch of guys go to Princeton at night to work together and we also did 7 on 7,” said Young, a senior at Montgomery High who had not played football since his freshman year. “We run a hurry-up offense so you have to learn all the signals. Chris (Chugunov) and Jabari (Clemons) and Mitch (Chugunov) all helped me learn the plays.”
Young’s time was certainly well spent. In the Cougars’ first game of the season, he caught four balls for 186 yards and a pair of touchdowns as Montgomery topped Westfield, 30-19.
”I had coached him in winter track and knew he had speed,” Montgomery coach Zoran Milich said. “He came up to me one day or I might have seen him throwing the football around on the turf. I knew since I had him as a sophomore in track that he had really grown into his body. He works out in the weight room. One day he came up to me and said he said he was going to play football.
”Chris Chugunov started working with him as a receiver. With his speed we had him on the outside as a receiver. When we had an injury we moved him inside to our tight end/slot position.”
After one game it looks as though Young made the right decision in returning to the football field.
”I played football my freshman year but I wasn’t really into it,” Young said. “I started regretting it last year and I decided to play senior year. I didn’t want to regret not playing. I was friends with a lot of the guys. They were on me about playing and I thought it would be a fun season.”
Tyler Young is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
”He’s not the same kid he was as a freshman,” Milich said. “Our circumstances were different when he was a freshman. At that point we moved every bigger kid to the line so he played on the line for us. His body changed. Once he became really good on the track we realized he could fly on the football field.”
For Young, the transition has gone well. Having an experienced quarterback like Chris Chugunov throwing the ball to him has certainly helped speed up his progress. Chugunov finished the opener with 323 yards passing.
”I was a little surprised,” Young said of his own performance. “With Chris at quarterback anything can happen because he has cannon for an arm. I don’t have to get wide open to get the ball. When I played freshman year I played offensive line and defensive end. So it was big switch. We just needed linemen that year.
”It was definitely exciting. My second touchdown was right after (Westfield) returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown and we came right back with a big play from scrimmage. I was really excited after that to get right back at them.”
The Cougars were down 13-0 in the opening quarter and trailed 19-14 in the second half before scoring the final 16 points of the game to get the season started with a victory.
We were down 13-0 pretty early and our defense really stepped it up,” Young said. “They only allowed one actual touchdown that game. And our offensive line has been taking some criticism but they really stepped it up. Chris had a lot of time to throw the ball.”
And four times he found Young, which resulted in a big game in his return to the football field.
”When we switched him to the slot he wasn’t really taking to it at first,” Milich said. “He had spent the summer working on the outside. When we had an injury we had to move him over full-time.
”He is a real bright kid. One day I saw him and it seemed like he didn’t want to play the position. I told him in that position a kid with his speed could put up all-state numbers. He bought into it and has really taken to it, which has helped us. He has real good speed. He is a big kid at 6-1, 190 pounds. He has some girth and fits the position. He has really helped our team a lot.”