Jamie Anderson and Marcus Allen don’t know each other very well. They’ve barely even met, in fact. Yet they’ll soon be the poster children for one of the biggest rivalries in Mississippi high school football.

Anderson, an offensive lineman at Warren Central, and Allen, a linebacker at Vicksburg High, will appear on the cover of the new book “Y’all vs. Us: Thrilling Tales of Mississippi’s Hottest High School Football Rivalries.”

The book, which has a $34.95 cover price, hits stores on Friday and will be available locally at Lorelei books, 1103 Washington St.

It explores the history and intricacies of 15 rivalries around the state, including Warren Central and Vicksburg.

“That didn’t take a whole lot of debate before that one ended up on the list. Everybody in Mississippi knows about it. That made it a slam dunk,” said Mike Frascogna III, who co-authored the book with his brother Marty and father Mike Frascogna Jr. The trio also wrote “Gridiron Gold,” a book about Mississippi high school coaches, in 2007. “Y’all vs. Us” is the first volume of what Frascogna III hopes will be an ongoing series.

“We realized early on that you couldn’t do one volume in Mississippi,” he said. “There were so many outstanding rivalries that you couldn’t fit in for one reason or another. We didn’t even have Magee and Mendenhall, for crying out loud.

“There’s more than enough to fill a second volume, if not a third.”

Frascogna said the intensity and unique history of the Vicksburg-Warren Central rivalry led to its inclusion in volume one. During the old conference era of the 1970s, when both schools were powerhouses, there was plenty of debate about which team would win, but they never met on the field until 1981. Warren Central then proceeded to win 20 of the first 21 games against VHS – a streak that only seemed to intensify the rivalry, Frascogna said.

“It’s interesting that Vicksburg was expected to dominate this rivalry, and it turned out to be the exact opposite,” he said. “It turned out to be the more Warren Central won, the bigger the monkey got on Vicksburg’s back. And it got to be a big monkey on Warren Central’s back, too, because people always expected them to win.”

Although they appear on the cover together, Anderson and Allen have only met during a summer school session a few years ago. Several Warren Central and Vicksburg players were photographed at each school in the spring, then edited together on the front and back covers. The process was repeated for each of the book’s 15 alternate covers – one for each rivalry.

Anderson said he knew of the book and remembered the photo shoot, but didn’t know he was going to be on the cover of the Vicksburg-Warren Central version. Allen said he found out a couple of weeks ago.

“I didn’t know it until people started telling me about two weeks ago. I was excited about it, to see myself on the cover of a magazine,” Allen said. “This is the first time I’ve been on anything like this. I couldn’t explain it. It was a tight picture.”

Vicksburg and Warren Central will meet for the 28th time on Sept. 5, at Memorial Stadium. Although WC dominated its crosstown foes for two decades, Vicksburg has won two of the last three meetings, and three of the last six. Anderson, a senior, said that would give the Vikings some extra motivation.

“It’s going to be a competitive game, and a game we have to win,” Anderson said. “Being seniors, it’d be hard to lose to them again.”

Allen, meanwhile, said being noticed as one of the top matchups in the state should give everyone involved a little extra pep in their step to live up to the hype.

“It’s a little more hype now that we’re considered one of the top 15 rivalries in the state. Everybody’s going to be a little more excited,” he said, adding with a smile, “Since I’m on the cover, it’s going to make me play harder. Everybody knows who I am now.”