This fall, football fans across Cobb County will have a chance to see their favorite high school football players in action on Friday nights.

Tonight, they will have a chance to meet some of those players, with members of the Marietta Daily Journal’s Dynamite Dozen slated to be at Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q restaurant on Roswell Road from 7:30-9:30 p.m. taking pictures and signing autographs.

“It’s great for the kids — the little kids that will come out and get a chance to look at these guys that are considered to be elite athletes in Cobb County, the state and, heck, for that matter, the country,” Kell coach Derek Cook said. “It will be eye-opening for the athletes to see how the little kids look up to them. I think that’s a pretty unique slant on the whole event as well.”

Advance copies of “Kickoff 2012,” this year’s edition of the MDJ’s annual football preview section, will also be available for purchase for $1 each.

Comprising the Dynamite Dozen are Walton’s Tyren Jones, Brandon Kublanow and Parker McLeod, Marietta’s Anthony Jennings and Tyree Harris, Lassiter’s Eddie Printz and Juwan Dickey, McEachern’s Jujuan Dulaney, South Cobb’s Stephon Masha, Kell’s Quincy Mauger and Brendan Langley and North Cobb’s Quinten James.

Of that group, seven players have committed to play for colleges in the Southeastern Conference, two are headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference and one is headed to the Pac-12.

“I think our young people, they know who these guys are,” Walton coach Rocky Hidalgo said. “They recognize them, and when they are out and people see these guys, little kids want to get close to them because they are great high school football players.”

In addition to meeting the fans, members of the community and local youth football players, the high school standouts can take a benefit out of an event like this.

“It’s good to get the young athletes in some face-to-face public relations and interactions with strangers,” Cook said. “So many times, they are at school and around friends, if they go to college, they will have to sit at a press conference and have composure.”

Along with serving as role models to future players, the Dynamite Dozen have a chance to represent their schools and communities, not to mention the teammates who helped them get them to status that they have currently achieved.

“Anthony and Tyree will be the first to tell you that they aren’t invited to the Dynamite Dozen without the offensive line and the other guys on the team,” Marietta coach Scott Burton said. “We try to get our kids to learn that Friday nights are special, and being a high school football player is something that will be there forever.

“When you have another organization, like the Marietta Daily Journal, that highlights how important and how precious this time of their life is, it highlights that they can count their blessings and realize that they are special.”