University of North Carolina Athletics
CAROLINA: Call On Hoots
February 5, 2014 | Men's Basketball
NOTE: This article originally appeared in the Feb. 4 issue of CAROLINA.
by Robbi Pickeral
CHAPEL HILL -- One of Eric Hoots' favorite duties as North Carolina's director of player relations is taking recruits and their families on golf cart tours and showing them everything on campus from the Undergraduate Library to historic dorms to The Pit.
It's fitting that Hoots, a former varsity manager who also now serves as assistant to the athletic director for men's basketball, builds those relationships so early. Because once a player signs, that tie (and the number punched into his cell phone) rarely disappears.
Besides his duties as video coordinator, assisting with on-campus recruiting, keeping up with players' academic progress, managing the equipment budget and ordering apparel, the 32-year-old father of two is the primary contact for past Tar Heel players.
That means he's the guy who Skypes with UNC pros in Europe when they want updates on the team, manages reservations and requests when former players come to town, gets alums into the Smith Center when they want to work out, and answers the phone at all hours if anyone-former All-America or walk-on, alike-needs to chat.
He is a brother, a scheduler, a shoulder, a liaison-that family member who keeps all of the Tar Heels generations together.
"When you talk about Carolina Basketball, names like Jordan, Coach Smith, Coach Williams, along with other greats are mentioned," former UNC forward Jawad Williams, a starter on the 2005 national championship team, wrote in an email. "One name I guarantee everyone who is affiliated with Carolina basketball knows is Eric Hoots.
"... Eric has been the link that has kept ALL former players in touch with each other as well as the link for former players to current players and everything else Carolina basketball related. I know I'm not speaking for myself when I say that Eric even has a relationship with my parents-yes, even my mom has Hoots in her phone book."
And vice versa.
Hoots, who has now officially been on staff for 10 years, never imagined he'd end up at the epicenter of the Carolina basketball family; it just sort of happened.
He was a huge of fan of UNC basketball growing up in Newton, N.C., attending the blue-white game every year with his dad and grabbing nosebleed seats in nearby Charlotte when the team happened to play there. He loved cheering for the likes of Eric Montross, Hubert Davis, Jerry Stackhouse and Shammond Williams (all now in his cell phone, by the way), and when it was time to decide on college, he applied for early admission at UNC. "I don't even know if I had a second choice," he said.
An avid player himself, he also knew he wanted to be a part of the basketball program, so during the spring semester of his high school year, he traveled to Chapel Hill to meet with then-assistants Phil Ford and Dave Hanners. They advised he could always try out for the junior varsity program, but knowing there was a time limit on that team with no guarantee of making varsity, Hoots decided the manager program intrigued him the most. "I wanted it to be more than a two-year deal, and I knew that if I worked hard, it would be," he said.
He ended up serving as a JV manager his freshman year in 1999-2000, the final season Bill Guthridge was head coach. And during the Matt Doherty years, he steadily moved up the chain, taking on some administrative duties in the basketball office while still working with the JV as a sophomore, then advancing to varsity manager in 2001-02 and 2002-03. He was a fifth-year senior when current head coach Roy Williams was hired. And he said he'll never forget how Williams remembered his name when he picked Williams and his wife Wanda up at the airport a few weeks after their first team meeting-or the white-knuckle trip back to Chapel Hill.
"Oh, I was nervous,'' Hoots said. "When you're driving people for the first time, you never know: should I be overly cautious and watch the speed limit, or do you get there as fast as you can barring an accident?
"Knowing Coach now, it's get there as fast as you can. On that first trip, though, the needle was at 55."
Since then, though, Hoots' career-ride has been anything but slow.
He worked as head varsity manager in 2003-04, and after graduating with a degree in communications, he was hired as the team's nine-month temporary video coordinator in 04-05, the year Williams won his first national title. After that season, Hoots was promoted to full-time video coordinator; in '08-09, he added "director of player relations" to his title; and after Joe Holladay retired last summer, he moved up to his current post.
"He's got such a love for the University, and even raise that several levels: it's a love for the basketball program. And then raise that several levels, and it's a love for each individual in this program," Williams said. "[Hoots] understands that it is about people. His father is a minister, so his whole thing is not about buildings and traditions, it's about the people.
"He was my manager the first year and we kept him around, and he does so many things that people have no idea what all he does. He understands he still has some shortcomings, he's young and immature and fiery at times. But he really uses that as fuel. There are no limits on his work ethic, no limits on what he can do."
Indeed, Hoots still thinks he may want to be a sideline coach one day. But for now, he's thrilled to still be at Carolina-learning, educating, connecting.
For all the highs and lows of the program he's experienced-Final Fours and player transfers, buzzer beaters and injuries-he says his favorite time of the year is each summer, when so many former players come back to play in pick-up games, to visit with each others' families, to pass on Carolina memories and traditions.
His cell phone, which holds contact info for hundreds of players dating back to the early '90s, is particularly busy then. But it's part of the job[s].
"That's what makes this place special, that's what makes Coach Williams and Coach Smith special-it's not just a team, it's a program," Hoots said. "Our players take pride in this place, and it hurts them when the team is 1-4 in the ACC. I was talking to Reyshawn Terry on Skype [recently], and he's like, 'What's going on?' He's in France, and he's watching every game. Jawad Williams came back during his break when he was in France. Sean May has already been back to help the guys.
"To have them call me about anything, that's what I value. The biggest thing is having their trust and their friendship; that's what means the most to me. That's why being here, having this job-watching guys from the time they are recruited, to when the play, to when they come back here with their kids-really is a dream come true."
