A football player and cheerleader are going to be on the cover of the 2014 Gridiron football magazine, but which ones are up to the community.

The Times-Journal’s second annual Gridiron football magazine cover vote will start on Monday, July 21 at 8 a.m. and run through Friday, July 25 at 5 p.m.

Unlike in the first year of the vote, this year a football player from one of the local high schools will be paired with a cheerleader from a different high school, which will even up the vote between larger and smaller schools.

“Everyone seemed to love last year’s vote,” said Times-Journal sports writer Daniel Evans. “But, the one complaint we received was that smaller schools — like Meadowview Christian, Keith and Ellwood Christian — were at a disadvantage. By pairing up schools, we feel like we’ve evened up the competition and made it fair for all schools involved.”

A picture of each pairing will be placed in a Facebook gallery on the Times-Journal’s page Monday, July 21 at 8 a.m. Once the gallery is up, community members, fans and students can vote for their favorite nominee by clicking the “like” button on the photo they want to vote for.

Likes for the entire gallery will not count. Comments on the gallery and comments on individual photos will not count.

Only “likes” of the photo will be counted as actual votes for a candidate.

The vote will end Friday, July 25 at 5 p.m. and the winning cover choice will be announced.

The winning pairing will be on the front of the Gridiron Magazine when it is released in August. Last year a total of 4,219 votes were cast in the cover vote and the winner, Dallas County’s Xavier Knight, won with 1,398 votes.

“This year we are expecting an even bigger response from the community,” Evans said. “This won’t be a cakewalk for anybody. We expect all seven pairings to get a lot of votes, forcing this competition go down to the wire.”

The players and cheerleaders taking part in the cover vote were chosen by each school’s coaching staff, cheerleading sponsor, or principal.

The magazine will preview the football seasons for Dallas County’s seven high schools and for Concordia College Alabama, giving locals players to watch, team breakdowns, and the inside scoop on the area teams.

“This should be an exciting football season in Dallas County, with three schools moving up a classification and another making the move to eight-man football,” Evans said. “There’s also been a lot of moves on the coaching front, so the magazine will break it all down.”

2014 Gridiron Magazine Cover Vote Options

Lowell Furlow, Dallas County / Emily Morgan, Ellwood Christian

Khamari Gibbs, Southside / Destiny Hall, Keith

Jesse Boggs, Selma / Heather Day, Meadowview

Deanthony Griffin, Keith / Emily Morgan, Dallas County

J’miere Solomon, Ellwood / Miranda Johnson, Morgan

Stanhope Frazier, Morgan / Ebonaa Boyd, Selma

Wesley Gunter, Meadowview/ Khamari Gibbs, Southside