Each December, the Varsity edition features the 18 Under 18 -- 18 select student-athletes whose skills, goals, contributions, hopes and challenges go well beyond a box score.

This year, be part of the process.

Tell us about your friends, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters and employees; the teenagers you coach, teach, work with, play against or worship next to; the dreamer next door, the future millionaire creating yet another something at the basement workbench, or tying up the computer writing the next best-seller.

18 Under 18 starts with sports but doesn't end there. The best athletes, those whose skills will put them through college, maybe even the pros, are welcome candidates. But the bigger goal of 18 Under 18 is to shine a light on the things student-athletes do off the field that distinguish them. The only qualifications: Candidates must be in the eighth through 12th grades and cannot turn 18 before Jan. 1. Send a note telling us about your candidate, including contact information for yourself and your candidate.

Tell us about the great things your candidate has done, or is bound to do, for himself or herself, family, friends, strangers. Tell us about sports, sure, but don't forget volunteerism, selflessness, determination and ingenuity. Let's see the whole person.

E-mail your entry to sports@timesnews.com; fax it to 870-1808; mail it to 18 Under 18, Erie Times-News Sports, 205 W. 12th St., Erie, PA 16534; or drop it off at the Times-News offices.

We're now accepting nominations, and we'll publish our 18 Under 18 edition in late December in Varsity.