Can&8217;t you picture it? Walking down the street on a crisp autumn night, watching as the band marches onto the field in front of you. The drums bang out the cadence, sending everyone in to the beat. The smells of hamburgers, hot dogs and more fills the air.

As you enter the stadium, you see the teams doing final preparations before they run to the respective sidelines. Heading to your seat, you say &8220;hi&8221; to the familiar faces surrounding you.

Isn&8217;t it so close you can almost taste it?

Football season is approaching far faster than I was expecting, but I am happier than ever to see it here.

As you&8217;ve seen in these pages all week, several area squads hit the field for practice this week, with any stragglers coming in the next day or two. After seeing everyone go after each other, this could be a banner year for our teams.

As you all know this is my first year in the Miss-Lou, but my previous 10 high schools to cover have given me two mediocre teams and eight awful ones.

Thus, I am quite excited to see what may come this season with several great teams from throughout this area and a few up-and-coming ones, as well.

Sports Reporter Rick Breland and I are currently circling the Miss-Lou as we prepare the 2006 Football Section, which should give you what you&8217;ve come to expect from this sports section over the past several years &8212; a high quality product.

However, the two of us are far more excited to get to the sidelines every Friday night to report on how each team is doing as the season progresses. Both of us being football guys, you can expect highly detailed coverage of each game we get to over the course of the season.

However, to get that high-quality coverage we will need your help. We are currently looking for paid correspondents and unpaid stat-keepers to help us out each week during the season. If you&8217;re a high school or college student &8212; or even an adult &8212; looking to break into the journalism business or just see your name in print, this is a great opportunity for you. There&8217;s plenty of valuable experience to be gained from helping out during football season, and all of us here at The Democrat are happy to pass on any knowledge we may have.

So, for those of you looking for a little r/sum/-booster, that option will always be available to you.

We&8217;re also planning to add a few new wrinkles to make the section a bit more interactive with you, the fan, but those haven&8217;t all been ironed-out yet so we&8217;ll let you know more just a little later.

The excitement around this office is tangible, and I hope it&8217;s that way wherever you may be reading these words, as well. It&8217;s going to be one heck of a season, and I am ready to see how it goes.

I&8217;m also ready to go back to my one hotdog-a-week rule.

Tim Cottrell is the sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached by phone at 601-445-3632 or by e-mail at

tim.cottrell@natchezdemocrat.com

.