Outside The Huddle: It’s All About The G

In terms of brand-slogans, Gordo High School was ahead of the curve.

Before phrases like Clemson’s “Bring Your Own Guts” and the SEC’s “It Just Means More” was the Green Wave’s “It’s All About The G”.

“That was kind of the mindset at the time (in 2006). This is just who we are, this is how we are,” said Haley Chapman, Gordo High School Class of 2011.

The catch-phrase was painted on a wall on the outside of the school gymnasium before the 2006 school year, as Gordo High School prepared for a significant shift. GHS was preparing to add 130 new students from nearby Carrollton Unit School which was transitioning to strictly become kindergarten through sixth grade.

“It’s All About The G” became a tool to unify the incoming students with the returning ones.

“It’s not: let’s put on a show, it was none of that,” Haley Chapman said. “Now we have it on the wall, but we always said it and we always lived it. But now it’s right there in front of you on every school building essentially.”

“It’s all about the ‘G’ – we say it in baseball, we say it in the classroom, off the field, when we are hanging out with teammates or friends or whatever you want to call it,” said Koy Chapman, Gordo High School Class of 2017.

Just as fitting as the phrase itself is where it came from. The elementary school and high school are the epicenter of the Gordo community. In that respect, the town is not different from other communities in Alabama.

“People have a vested interest in this community and in our programs and football on Friday night in Alabama — it is what it is all over the state. We just think it carries on a different flavor here,“ said Jamie Chapman, Gordo High School Class of 1986 and current Superintendent of Pickens County Schools.

The Chapman family embodies that outlook. Jamie Chapman and his wife, Candy, are Gordo “born and bred”. The couple and its three children – Bo, Haley, and Koy – attended Gordo Elementary School before graduating from GHS.

Jamie Chapman was a teacher and a coach at Gordo High School before becoming principal in 2006. He’s currently the Superintendent of Pickens County Schools.

Candy Chapman is a kindergarten teacher at Gordo Elementary School and a former GHS Cheer Sponsor.

After college, all three of their children (Bo, Haley, and Koy) returned to Gordo High School as coaches and mentors.

In short: since 1995 you can count on one finger the number of years that a member of this household was not either a player or coach at Gordo High School.