Students at Mansfield ISD's Summit High School in Texas say their principal cares like no other.

You might think you know Jason Mutterer’s story. He's the high school principal who shocked so many at Summit High’s graduation when he turned his back to the parents, family, teachers, and spoke into the soul of his students.

"He didn't care what everyone else thought; he wanted us to hear what he had to say," said Andrea Lozada, one of the class of 2025 graduates

"He, at one point, goes to tears a little bit. I knew that was going to happen, then he started talking about personal letters and 443 of them and I was like dang," said Eduardo Estrada, another graduate. "I'm like there's no way he just wrote 443 letters to every student in here."

It's true, Mutterer wanted to do something special for his students and says he got the idea while mowing the lawn. 

"It came to me, I have a letter that I got from a teacher back when I was in high school and I still have that with me today, said Mutterer.

His students still carried their letters, they say. We caught up with them.

"I have mine right here, he says, 'Dan the man' that's what they call me, that's my nickname," said Daniel Ezenagu, another graduate.  

"Andrea, thank you for being an important piece of our girls' track program this year," Lozada read from her letter.

"He said, 'Thank you so much for your leadership,'" added Estrada.

"Stay in touch and best of luck, at San Angelo, Coach Mutt," closed Esenagu.

Jason Mutterer, or Coach Mutt as he prefers to be called, has been at Summit High since it opened more than 20 years ago.

A basketball coach turned principal, who refused to accept the airs that come with being the leader.

"He didn't want everyone to see him as the principal; at the end of the day, he was a coach, a teacher," said Lozada.

"I was supposed to be a fourth or fifth generation farmer," Coach Mutt told us. "My government teacher just said that you can go to college and can succeed in college and I kept that because somebody saw something in me that I didn't see in myself."

That note, all those years ago, sparked something in the kid who turned away from the family business to plant a different kind of seed with students.

"Did you teach most of these kids?" we asked.

"I taught none of them," he told us.

But he knew them all. Well.

"Most principals don't go out of their way to go to students' events, basketball games, he is always there," said Lozada

"He knows everybody by name, he knows something's going on in everybody's lives," said Estrada

"I don't even know how he does it, he's like a magician, but yeah, athletes bands, regular students, whatever you do, he knew about it," added Ezenagu.

The students said Coach Mutt's dedication to them made it easy for them to dedicate themselves to their school.

"I ran track and I made it to regionals this year, he was there watching me and he even took a picture of me," said Lozada." I didn’t know he was there; he just popped up out of the blue."

And tucked in each note he gave out was a dollar bill.  

"It's very touching," said Ezennagu.

"I don't know if I want to keep it, or give it to someone who wants to do something great with it,"  said Lozada.

"A dollar seems insignificant, but if 443 kids are doing random acts of kindness every day, it has a huge impact on our society," Mutterer said.

The grads we spoke to who want to be an airline pilot, psychologist and track star will tell you, it’s hard not to let his words in these letters get you.   

"There's nothing he hasn't told me before, but just the way he went out of his way to write it," said Estrada.

"Just seeing it on paper and having the proof of somebody saying that they see you," said Lozada.

"I looked at the note, smiled, and it was a heartfelt feeling, it was amazing," said Ezenagu.

"I did get teary," said Estrada.