-- Walter
NOW PRESENTING, OUR FEATURE ATTRACTION
The blinding lights hovering above high school stadiums, the cameras clattering from the sidelines and the chaotic action inside the chalked lines ...
It's what a lot of folks in the Central Valley live for.
Welcome to your Friday Night Feature Attraction.
The cast of characters vary from Friday to Friday. It stars coaches, players, cheerleaders, mascots, ballboys, waterboys, P.A. announcers, media and fans.
Everyone plays their part to create the magic that is high school football, and we hope to do ours as we continue to build on our recent string of award-winning football previews.
In 2005, former Manteca Bulletin sports editor James Burns, with help from talented artists Andy Duong and Elvin Dantes, gave our annual special section a comic-book twist.
Last year, the Bulletin joined forces with its sister papers, the Oakdale Leader and the Ceres Courier, that also cover the Valley Oak League.
With Ceres High returning to the VOL after a decade-long stint in the Central California and Modesto Metro conferences, along with the arrival of crosstown rival Central Valley High, our cover theme for the Courier centered around the changing landscape of the league.
The Leader's rendition played off of Oakdale High's million-dollar facelift of "The Coral" and the rebuilding of a football dynasty.
The Bulletin's cover featured representatives from each of the Manteca area teams, as they hopped onto a school bus for a special ride on "Glory Road."
Our current theme was contrived by Ceres Courier sports reporter Dale Butler. Once the words, "feature attraction," left his mouth, ideas were born.
And from that point on, many members of our staff left their fingerprints on what you see here today. It's a cliché I hear too often, but in this case it truly was a team effort.
Jagada Chambers, the Leader's sports reporter, and Butler took the time out of their busy schedules to contribute, as did Bulletin education beat reporter Jason Campbell. Bulletin sports reporter Brandon Petersen did a lot of the heavy lifting and helped me come up with our movie poster theme.
The rest was brought to life by the Bulletin's talented artists, from the photographic wizardry of Hime Romero and the graphics genius of Sherry Roberts.
And putting all the little puzzle pieces together was Bulletin chief paginator Patricia Alvarado, who has been a part of our special-section crew since the beginning.
That is our team, and we hope to make your Friday nights and Saturday mornings that much more enjoyable.
So find the lights, bring your cameras and be a part of the action.
Your Friday Night Feature Attraction will be played at stadiums near you.
-- J.J.
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