It was the second week of the 2006 high school football season, and driving through Sturgis, you could not find a car on the street, not a leftover biker to be had. The streets were empty. Tumbleweed rolled across Main Street. The theme from "High Plains Drifter" echoed in the hills.

But as you drove closer to the high school football field, you could see where the town had gone. Everyone in town was at the team's game against Rapid City Stevens, hoping they could snap their nationally-recognized 79-game losing streak. Everyone was there. And coming out to watch a team which hadn't won since the Roosevelt Administration. Teddy Roosevelt. (Well, OK, they hadn't won since 1997).

This is what high school football means in small cities and towns throughout our circulation area. In some places, it is a reflection of the community and provides a sense of pride and an identity like no other prep sports team. Winning programs transcend just stats and standings, they breathe life into a town through the generations of its teenagers who have won championships. In other towns, it is 'the thing to do' on a Friday night, whether you have kids in school or not, whether they play football or not, whether you're even from that town or not. Signs are painted, banners go up, it's what everyone talks about in the coffee shops. Win or lose.

That's the way it was in Sturgis last year, when they knocked off Stevens 22-20.

That is why we began featuring high school football on A1 of the Rapid City Journal last year. In an effort to capture just a tiny bit of what is the biggest event of the week in many small places in western South Dakota, we began 'zoning' high school football on the cover. Simply put, we produce 3-4 different front pages each Friday night.

For the readers in our outlying areas, the Saturday morning paper may feature White River, Bennett County or Pierre football games. In the Northern Hills, it may be Belle Fourche, Spearfish or Lead-Deadwood, while in the Southern Hills we will focus on schools like Pine Ridge, Hot Springs, and Hill City. And in Rapid City, the front page will have a Stevens, Douglas, Central or St. Thomas More game.

Last year, we sold hundreds more newspapers on Saturday mornings by featuring high school football on the cover. And while a few of our readers may have felt that sports stories don't belong on the cover of the newspaper, there were hundreds of other readers who purchased the Journal specifically because of that.

It was one of the more successful initiatives we launched last year and so we're returning with it this year.