Flower Mound boys basketball Head Coach Eric Littleton has been overwhelmed by the response after he posted several positive messages about players on his team to YouTube.
It started as a way to spread messages highlighting character and leadership to younger athletes at Flower Mound High School's feeder schools, but the videos, now posted on YouTube, have garnered attention from others.
"I’ve actually gotten emails from people overseas who have seen those blogs, so I’ve been shocked how well it’s been received because my intent wasn’t for it to go viral like that," Littleton said. "My focus was on my feeder school kids."
Littleton says the idea to log inspirational stories from his players started way back, about 25 years ago, when he thought of writing them down for his future children to reflect upon.
Now in his seventh year with Flower Mound High School boys basketball, and his third as head coach, he has recently turned to recording videos.
"We have a very special group of kids here at Flower Mound High School," Littleton said. "What shocked me when I first arrived here was how polite and how respectful these kids are in the classroom, the hallways and on the athletics fields, and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never dropped."
So far, he has featured four of six seniors on the varsity team, several of whom are not starters or don't get as much time playing during games as they may like.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"I think so often we get wrapped up in the score on the score board, with the grade on the report card, we get so wrapped up with things we think are important that we forget the most important things, and those most important things are raising young men and women who have hearts that are servant hearts," Littleton said.
The positive message and recognition of their leadership and efforts is something the players appreciate.
"When I saw that, I was really thankful he was taking notice of what I was doing, and it’s not just the basketball court that matters, the off-the-court stuff matters, as well," said Elijah Dukes, a player featured in one of Coach Littleton's videos. In it, Littleton talks about Dukes' actions when no one is looking, and highlights his overseas mission work during the summer.
"I think the message he is really trying to send is character matters more than your talent, and he would rather have a character guy on the team more so than a talented one because wins don’t matter to him as much as the individual," Dukes said.
