NAMPA, Idaho — The Nampa High School football team helped give nine-year-old Christian Larsen, who has autism, a birthday he'll never forget.
The team attended his birthday party after they found out only one person RSVP'd and he didn’t have many friends coming.
KTVB shined a spotlight on them for this week's 7's Hero. The team has gained a lot of attention since then, with news stations and other media outlets also highlighted these students since it aired.
“I’ve had a lot of direct messages saying, ‘Hey great job, this is something you'll remember for the rest of your life,’” Cade Smith said.
Some of his teammates described the attention as cool, but overwhelming.
"I've heard it's gone international, but at the end of the day, that's amazing, but it's all for Christian and I'm just glad his story has been getting out," Smith said.
The team has received attention not only from the Nampa community but from across the nation and even as far as Denmark. The program has also received an outpouring of support, as well as donations.
“Obviously that wasn't the goal at all, but people feel compelled to want to support us and what we did and we're extremely grateful,” said Head Coach Dan Holtry.
While the praise is great, Holtry says the focus is on raising young leaders and even better human beings.
“I'm just extremely proud of the boys, just the way that they've handled it,” Holtry said. "We're just so ready for things to start and the football coach in me says let's put all this aside and let's go to work, but at the same time this is a huge part of what we try to do as a coaching staff and as a program and build well rounded young men who are successful on and off the field."
It's a sentiment that the players echo as they get ready for the upcoming football season.
“We didn't do it because we wanted to be on the news, we did it because we're good people and we wanted to make Christian’s day,” Donavon Estrada, said.