Sports Column: The Vicksburg Post’s football preview issue is a great tradition to uphold – The Vicksburg Post

Like most sports editors around the country, one of the many tasks I’m assigned each year is to produce a football preview issue.

Some people consider it a chore, and it certainly can be. Writing a dozen feature-length stories, taking nearly 300 player pictures, editing them all and putting them on the page — all in about a three-week period — is a lot of work.

During my time at The Vicksburg Post, however, I’ve come to regard it less as a chore and more as a tradition that I’m proud to be the guardian of.

The Post’s first football preview issue was published in 1976, and we’ve pumped one out every August since then. That makes the current issue, available bundled with this weekend’s print and E-editions, the 49th edition. Almost half a century.

The preview issue has certainly evolved in that time. We’ve gone from a massive, 100-page newsprint edition that included state and regional colleges, to a leaner but dense 48-page glossy magazine called “Playmakers” that focuses mostly on our local high school teams.

The current version, by design, is a keepsake edition that lasts throughout the year. I always keep a copy on my desk to use as a reference tool, like an almanac for the current season. Although season preview stories can have a short shelf life, features such as the Warren County record book, schedules and rosters are timeless. Team and individual photos give it the feel of a yearbook.

All of which brings us back to the 2024 edition of “Playmakers.” It is available in this weekend’s print and E-editions, and individual stories will be posted to vicksburgpost.com. If you missed it in the paper this weekend, we’ll have some copies available at our office at 1106 Washington St. in downtown Vicksburg. A limited number will also be available at the Red Carpet Bowl on Aug. 30.

“Playmakers 2024” includes a mix of the nuts-and-bolts items mentioned above, as well as features on players from our five area teams — Vicksburg High, Warren Central, St. Aloysius, Porter’s Chapel Academy and Tallulah Academy — and more.

One of the more interesting stories is about the Magnolia Wildcats, a Central Mississippi home school team. They are heading into their inaugural season with about a third of the 31-man roster consisting of players from Vicksburg.

Another is a refresher on the Vicksburg Warren School District’s new clear bag policy that goes into effect this season.

In all, there are nearly 30 features packed into 48 pages of “Playmakers.” We’ve done our best, as always, to make it something to check out not only at the beginning of the season but all the way through. We hope you enjoy it.

Let’s do this again next year.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post’s sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post’s sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper’s 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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