In 1909, a year after the Georgia High School Association was created, state high schools competed for the first time in recorded history. Spanning two days once that year, students statewide gathered from schools in close proximity to their own for a district literary meet: Gainesville High School served as host for this area. You see, since the literal dawn of high school competition in Georgia, Big Red has been a big player, and when athletics came into the official fold they really started stomping. Now, most of the schools from that first competition don’t exist anymore, or do in another form with a different name, but GHS remains and not only that, GHS thrives, having spent the 119 years since that first recorded GHSA event building a competitive and athletic legacy few can match. I’m Katie B. Davis, 1997 graduate of GHS, sports information director AT GHS, and co-host of the new podcast Behind the G. After spending nearly 20 years telling other people’s stories as a sports writer and radio show host, I’m back with the Red Elephants who raised me, and ready to tell OUR story. Beginning next Thursday and continuing weekly through May, Gainesville athletic director Adam Lindsey and I will give listeners an inside look at Red Elephant athletics: past and present with eyes towards the next 119 years. Candid conversations on topics important to GHS athletics can be expected and we’ll be joined by a rotating cast of current Gainesville coaches and student-athletes, more importantly though, we’ll tell the tales of how the Red Elephants standard of athletic excellence was built and how it’s sustained by asking the people responsible, and sharing the moments that made it so.