Tonight, an American pastime will begin across our region — Friday night high school football season.

The lights will kick on, the cheerleaders will leap into the air and fans will cheer as football takes center stage.

Although teams across the river in Louisiana will not have their first official kickoff for a little while longer, on the Mississippi side of our community, the fun begins tonight.

Football is fun.

Football is important in the lessons it provides the players and various support roles — cheerleaders, trainers, band and dance teams.

But let us all remember a significant lesson in the weeks and months ahead — this is a game and the players on the field are children.

Yes some of those players may look like adults on the field; they are still young, still impressionable and still figuring out the world around them.

They will take cues from all of the adults around them.

If we treat football as if it’s more important than morals, ethics, schoolwork or any of a dozen similar things, we’re providing poor coaching lessons on being an adult.

Let’s play the game and cheer for our teams with respect and honor — for ourselves and for the opponents.

Let’s show other areas the level of class our people have by being noticeably respectful, polite and friendly when we are playing away from home and show that same level of respect to visitors.

We hope each and every team has a safe, successful season.