One of the biggest challenges in putting together The Vicksburg Post’s annual “Playmakers” football preview magazine is deciding on the cover.

Who to put on there isn’t all that difficult. We ask our local high school coaches from Vicksburg High, Warren Central, St. Aloysius, Porter’s Chapel Academy and Tallulah Academy to select a representative from their teams.

It’s the “how” that is tricky.

This is our 49th football preview issue, and coming up with an original idea that works within the technical parameters of a magazine cover is not easy.

“Playmakers” prints as an 8 1/2-by-11-inch product. That’s the size of a regular piece of letter-sized paper. If you look at one of those, you quickly realize that jamming five people into a photo that size is not easy. It needs to be framed in a way that is both eye-catching and functional. You also need to leave space for the title at the top and the cover blurbs, which further limits what you can do.

It’s quite the creative conundrum.

Fortunately, Vicksburg has no shortage of colorful backdrops. For this year’s issue, it was the Southern Heritage Air Foundation Museum. The museum located at Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport in Mound has an impressive display of both vintage and modern aircraft, as well as historical exhibits that honor area veterans.

If you’ve never visited the SHAF Museum, you should. It’s definitely a hidden treasure. Many thanks to SHAF president Patty Mekus and the staff for opening their doors and letting us turn the place into a playground for a couple of hours.

Our cover models — Vicksburg’s DeCorey Knight Jr., Warren Central’s Maddox Lynch, St. Al’s Thompson Fortenberry, PCA’s Conley Johnston and Tallulah Academy’s Eli Labauve — took their turns on and around some of the vehicles in the SHAF hangar.

For the cover photo, they all piled into a World War II-era jeep with a huge American flag in the background. It created a striking photo that satisfied all of the aesthetic and technical requirements.

The only disappointment was that the players quickly ditched the army helmets that are with the jeep. I thought they looked cool, but the guys didn’t seem to dig them. Oh well. I still think it’s one of the better cover photos we’ve had in recent years, and you can judge for yourself by picking up a copy of “Playmakers” next weekend.

It’ll be bundled with the weekend print and E-editions on Saturday, Aug. 24. It’ll also be available at our office at 1106 Washington St., and individual stories will be posted to vicksburgpost.com if you miss it in the newspaper. A couple have already run this past week.

“Playmakers” is more than just a preview issue, however. It’s also a handy reference guide for the current season of Warren County football. Besides the usual team previews and player features, there is plenty of useful information you’ll want to keep handy all year long. So pick one up, thumb through it, dive into it, and stash it away. You won’t regret it.

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