UNSUNG HEROES
TAR HEEL
FOR LIFE Eric Hoots is living a dream while making himself an indispensable part of Roy Williams’ basketball program BY ADAM LUCAS // PHOTOS BY MAGGIE HOBSON
T
WITH AN ASSIST FROM BOBBY FRASOR & TYLER HANSBROUGH
here are dozens of Eric Hoots stories that will make you understand why he is so important to the University of North Carolina basketball program. There are dozens of Eric Hoots stories that will make you understand why Roy Williams trusts him so much, and why he is so important to the legions of Tar Heel players who return to Chapel Hill in the summer, and why “Go ask Hoots” is one of the most commonly heard refrains around the Smith Center. But there is no story—none—that will make you love him more than this one. It is the late 2000’s and Carolina is about to face Duke. The game is in the Smith Center, so Hoots is there several hours before tipoff. The game won’t start for another two hours. Hoots, who has worked with the basketball program for nearly 20 years, first as a student manager and then as the video coordinator and now as the director of player development, is already in peak game shape. He has dozens of items on his gameday to-do list. Already on this day, he has helped former players with tickets, current players with everything and future players with visit plans. He is incapable of sitting still. As he sits, his leg is bouncing up and down on the Smith Center hardwood. I will never forget the words he said next. “I just hate them,” he said, leg still bouncing, “so much.” And now you know Eric Hoots. This is someone who has the same passion for Carolina basketball that he did as a four-year-old. That’s when his parents took him to watch the Tar Heels play in the old Charlotte Coliseum. Within minutes of entering the building, they couldn’t find young Eric, who was—of course—clad in Carolina blue-and-white Air Jordans.
18
BORN & BRED
