Six years ago in a suburb of Denver, Colo. called Littleton, two teenage athletes found themselves in the hallways of Heritage High School surrounded by 1,700 of their fellow students, ready to undertake the glamorized experience that is high school.

Fast forward the clocks four years, and the same two athletes were 1,400 miles away from home, surrounded by 33,000 fellow students in the Classic City and waist-deep in a culture where sweet tea is a staple on restaurant menus and the call of ‘Go Dogs’ brings people together.

He clinched his swimming cap and goggles in one hand and she kept her soccer cleats in tow, as they embarked on the four-year journey of college across the country with distant memories of their small town of 40,000 people dancing in their heads.

Junior Mark Dylla and redshirt sophomore Alex Hooker, the transplants from Littleton, began their friendship as freshmen in high school while they were simultaneously beginning to polish and refine their respective athletic abilities.

Hooker, an avid soccer player, and Dylla, an earnest swimmer, crossed paths when they went to their high school homecoming dance with the same group of friends.

“Freshmen year, we were in the same homecoming group. That was the first time I met Mark. After that, we were just in the same circle of friends,” Hooker said. “We became really close and we were really good friends all throughout high school.”

The duo’s friendship flourished, eating lunch together frequently, and cheering each other on at their various games and meets.

As they grew closer together as friends, they were each transforming into Division I caliber athletes.

Their junior year of high school set in, and the recruiting process came to the forefront for Hooker and evolved into a purposeful process in and of itself.

But with a little birdie in the form of Hooker’s club soccer coach was whispering in the ear of Hooker as well as Georgia’s head coach Patrick Baker.

“One of my dear friends in the club game James Harris was actually [Hooker's] club coach. He had familiarity with us and asked us to come and see her play,” Baker said. “From the moment we saw her play, we knew we would loved to have her be a member of our program.”

Hooker committed to Georgia in January of her junior year, and never looked back.

“We had to commit so early, so a lot of coaches get rid of all the traditional stuff like home visits and written letters,” Hooker said. “Coach Baker was the best about trying to keep tradition. He would always write a hand written letter every week to me, and he came to my senior night.”

Dylla, on the other hand, was forced to wait until his senior year to commit to a school due to the differences in the recruiting processes of the two sports.

And once Hooker got word that Georgia was on the swimmer’s top list of schools, she was relentless in trying to persuade Dylla to commit to the Bulldogs.

“Mark didn’t even start looking at schools until senior year. He told me he was talking to Georgia and of course, I was pushing Georgia so much,” Hooker said. “When he was deciding, I was probably really annoying. I would tell him [to go to] Georgia all the time.”

After his recruiting trip to Athens, Dylla’s mind was made up for him. He was to be a Bulldog. The first phone call he made after he chose to be a Bulldog was to a fellow Georgia signee to share the good news.

“The first person I called after I finally decided, and after my coaches and my parents knew was Alex,” Dylla said. “I think it was like midnight, but she was the next person I called.”

The next day at school, the two reenacted a scene from a movie, galloping across Heritage’s parking lot and embracing each other in a congratulatory hug.

“I just remember being at school that next day, and when she saw me, she ran up and gave me a big hug,” Dylla said. “We were outside, and I hadn’t seen her [yet that day], and she just came running across the parking lot. We were real excited to both be coming here.”

With such a tremendous upside and phenomenal promise, Hooker ran into a huge road block the game following her hat trick performance on senior night.

She sustained an ACL tear in her right knee.

Dylla wasn’t in the stands to witness the striker go down because he was competing in a swim meet, but he received the news about Hooker’s injury over the phone from a mutual friend and wanted to be there for his friend.

“I remember calling [friend] Brennen Degner to see how they were [playing], and the first thing he told me was, ‘Alex went down with something with her knee,’” Dylla said. “He said, ‘I think they’re kind of worried it might be her ACL or something.’ A day later, we pretty much knew that’s what it was.”

It just so happened that same week, Baker had a trip to Colorado scheduled so he could watch two other Georgia signees play on their senior nights. But visiting an injured Hooker was not in the original game plan for Baker.

“As I had left early in the morning on a Wednesday flight, without knowing it, Alex had actually gotten hurt late Tuesday night. As I’m flying in the air, [her parents] ask if I can come by the house once I’ve arrived because she’s gotten hurt,” Baker said. “That was a tough trip.”

Despite such a predominant set back, Hooker finished her senior year of high school with Dylla and they were both named the 2007 male and female outstanding athletes of Heritage High School, among a slew of other awards and accolades the two collected.

The future Bulldogs were set to represent their small community of Littleton all the way across the country.

“With 1700 students, they pretty much all know each other and they’re all one way or another connected,” said Alex’s father, David Hooker. “Everyone is very proud of those two.”

Arriving on campus with the only familiarity being in their sports was nerve-racking for the pair, especially for Hooker who could do nothing but observe from the sidelines after receiving a medical redshirt.

But having the other there for support was a spot of guaranteed comfort.

“It was really nice [having Mark here] freshmen year before I knew anyone. We were in season, so it was really hard,” Hooker said. “It was really nice having Mark to hangout with.”

In the face of such busy schedules of being student-athletes, Dylla and Hooker struggle to make time to hangout, but when they do get together, it’s like they never missed a beat.

“It’s amazing to think that she lived two floors above me last year, and I think I saw her four times walking in and out of the dorms. It doesn’t mean we’re not friends just because we don’t see each other. We’re still good friends,” Dylla said. “But when we see each other here, there’s nothing different.”

Hooker believes the friendship will have longevity and to stretch beyond their time in Athens. The striker holds Dylla to high acclaim as an important friend in her life, regardless of the rigorous schedule the two athletes hold.

“I think he’ll be at my wedding, and I’ll be at his wedding. He’s the kind of friend where we won’t talk for [a while] and when we see each other or do talk, we pick back up right where we left off,” Hooker said. “He’s just the sweetest guy in the world, and one of the best friends and the best people I know.”