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Former Tennessee Vol instills Summit's values in Stanley students

The late Pat Summitt was an inspiration to the players she coached and the lives she touched across the U.S.

Eyewitness News reporter, Ken Lemon, met with a local woman who has taken Summit's values and shared them with thousands of students.

Summitt, a University of Tennessee Woman’s Basketball coach, died this weekend from Alzheimer’s disease.

Cheryl Littlejohn spoke to Pat Summit last weekend and told her coach what she learned from her.

Littlejohn is now using those lessons to help students become champions in school.

"She was at peace," Littlejohn, who played for Summitt, said.

Littlejohn said it was a somber meeting with a coach known as fiery leader.

"We were basically telling her how much she meant to us," Littlejohn said.

Littlejohn was a standout high school player in Gastonia, and went on to play at the University of Tennessee. In 1987, she played on the team that won Summit's first national title.
 
Summit became the 'winningest' coach in all of college basketball.

"Hard work and work ethic and compassion is something that she impressed, and there were no excuses," Littlejohn said.
 
Littlejohn was in Stanley leading Operation Destiny, a free academic boot camp.

"It's about instilling all of the principals of hard work, of hard work commitment and dedication," she said.
Littlejohn and others from Charlotte, who also played for Summitt, are going to Tennessee for her funeral.