When you head to the Georgia Dome to watch a state championship game, you don’t know what to expect. Both teams have great records and both have a history of beating strong opponents. Early in the season, it didn’t look to me like Gainesville had a great team, a good team one which was going to have a winning record.

I didn’t realize I was watching a team which was in the process of becoming a state champion. Looking back the pieces were there, but it was going to take a lot of intense work and dedication to get to the level we witnessed against Ware County.

I’m sure I have said this before, but coach Bruce Miller cuts no slack during the Red Elephant practices: You either do it the coach’s way or go find a much less demanding way to spend your fall afternoons. It is incredibly demanding to play high school football, and very few high school athletes ever have the opportunity to play for the best of the best.

This Class AAAAA championship was not won in the Dome last Friday. It was won in the offseason weight program, during the incredibly tough and demanding preseason practices, and every practice Miller and his staff demanded perfection.

I don’t know many of the players personally, but have immense respect for the unselfish way they play together as a team. The Red Elephants play like a band of brothers.

1. Gainesville (12-3), PR 2.16, average points 45.33, points allowed 21: Only one left standing, I’m sure a picture of the 2012 Gainesville program will be prominently displayed for future Red Elephants to study and dream. That’s one of the reasons schools like Gainesville has developed a great tradition.

It starts several years earlier when the young players study the pictures of the championship teams and start their dreams.

As a player or as a coach, you don’t show up at the Dome and win a championship. Both coaches and players started to dream several years ago. The players start talking about it between class, coaching staffs can see these kids coming and know it’s not at all unreasonable to demand they practice and play at championship level. I am just an ex-coach, and a proud fan of Hall County High School football.

If the City holds a parade, Betsy and I will be there, proud to cheer on our champions.

Chuck Clausen is a Hall County resident who coached high school, college and professional football for 28 years. His Power Ratings column appears each Thursday during high school football season.