After all of the training and hours of practice, it’s finally show time for the Troup Tigers.

The Tigers will take to the field at Callaway Stadium Friday night and take on the Callaway Cavaliers in their 2010 season opener.

This will be the third straight year that the teams have faced off in the opening game o the season, and it is one that new Troup head coach Charles Flowers is looking forward to.

“We are pretty excited,” Flowers said. “It’s going to be a great game and there is going to be a great atmosphere to play in.”

Troup was 6-5 last season under head coach Bubba Jeter, who now serves as the defensive coordinator at Northgate, and the team is looking to improve on that mark under Flowers’ leadership.

Flowers, a Troup High graduate, has a 145-75 record, and most of those wins came while he was turning Shaw into a dynasty.

The Raiders won a state title in 2000, and they were regularly a state-title contender.

“Our ultimate goal is to turn Troup into a program where we are going to be competing every year,” Flowers said. “Not building just a team for one year, but building a program that’s going to perpetuate itself, and in order to do that you have to have some consistency. That’s our ultimate goal is to build up the program.”

For the moment, Flowers is focused on Callaway, and he said the team has been focused in the last few days on improving the timing of the offense and defense.

“We are really focused on our timing right now,” Flowers said. “We have had some really good practices so far this week. We are still trying to get our offense and defense on track and get some guys ready to go.”

The Tigers will be going up against a formidable opponent in the Cavaliers, who are looking to build on the most successful season in school history.

The Cavaliers went 10-3 last season, earning their second straight region championship as well as making it to the state quarterfinals.

“I truly believe that it is going to be a good ballgame. It will be good for the community,” Flowers said. “Callaway is a really good team, but we are a good team too.

“We give them all of the respect that they deserve. They are a fantastic team.”

Flowers knows that even though the Tigers are in a higher classification than the Cavaliers, that the team will not just lay down.

“You are not going to go out there and do what you want to against a AA school and dominate,” Flowers said. “You have to iron the crinkles out. Everybody’s got to be on the same page. You have to see what mistakes that you have made and see how you will perform.”