New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Booker gives back
Alabama offensive lineman holds clinic in native New Haven
NEW HAVEN — Tyler Booker recalled his halcyon days as a pop warner kid watching some of New Haven’s best football talents grow up in front of his eyes: Hamden’s Tarik Black and West Haven’s Brandon Sebastian at Cheshire Academy, Travis Jones at Wilbur Cross, among others.
Booker remembers looking up to those players with awe as they began their paths to the NFL, using them as inspiration and motivation for his own journey which was about to begin.
Just five years later on a Sunday at Bowen Field, several dozen kids from the Greater New Haven area were now looking up to the 6-foot-5, 325-pound behemoth freshman lineman at Alabama as he conducted football drills, shouting encouragement and imparting his knowledge to the next generation.
With the help of his family, including his father
William, mother Tashona, and his former New Haven pop warner coaches, Booker offered a one-day football camp before heading back to Tuscaloosa to fight for a starting job with the perennial SEC and National Championship contenders.
“It feels great to be back,” said Booker, a four-star rated offensive lineman who ultimately left New Haven to play at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
“Every time I come back I get really nostalgic. I remember right here I learned one of my first pass rush moves. …It’s where I grew up.”
Now, Booker feels obligated to give back to the community that created and nurtured him.
“It was something that my mom’s boss told me. He said: Don’t forget who brought you to the dance,” Booker said. “To me, that mean’s don’t forget about the people that made you who you are.”
Booker’s message to his campers: With hard work and dedication, yes you too can play major college football. Maybe you’ll even get to the NFL, like he’s attempting to do.
Booker also feels strongly that Connecticut players are under recruited and under-appreciated in the eyes of college scouts. Though he played his high school football out of state, Booker goes out of his way to shout out his hometown on social media. He came home to make his commitment to play for Alabama.
He makes it a point to say Connecticut players should get more love. For example, Booker said New Haven’s Travis Jones, who was just taken in the third round of the NFL Draft last month, should have been a higher-rated recruit coming out of Wilbur Cross five years ago.
“No disrespect to the UConn football program, but I feel like Travis was a five-star player and I feel he deserved to be on a bigger platform,” Booker said.
“And that’s really what I want to do. I want to come back and help put our players on a bigger platform. So
when they do get the opportunity to go to the next level, they can do it at the highest level.”
Jones said he expects a battle ahead of him as he fights to fulfill coach Nick Saban’s expectations at Alabama.
Booker was listed second on Alabama’s spring depth chart at right tackle behind 6-foot-6, 325-pound sophomore and former IMG teammate J.C. Latham. Though he said working alongside Latham again is a “brotherhood” and “a dream come true” he’s also ready for the challenge ahead.
“It’s really up to me to go in there, put in all the work,” he said. “They’re going to give that job to whoever deserves it the most. But I’m going to do everything in my power to get that job.”
Wherever his playing career leads him, Booker knows he’ll be back coaching again someday — maybe even right here in New Haven.
“I’m pretty sure I want to coach after I’m done playing football,” he said. “I just love helping people out. I love giving back and giving people what I have to give. Just to see these kids taking to it, is making my dreams come true.”