Football Star’s Camp A Touchdown Success

The rain came in torrents. It kept coming. No one seemed to care. This was the long-awaited second annual Tyler Booker Football Camp, and a little rainstorm wasn’t going to get in the way.

In every corner of Hopkins School​’s emerald-green Parr Field, along the sidelines, and throughout the middle, clusters of players on Saturday shuffled around cones, side-stepped and tip-toed through ladders, back-pedaled on a straight line, beads of moisture flying everywhere.

“Hinge at the hips,” a coach shouted to a player, as rain flew from his hair, intensity drawn deep in his features. ​“Look up, look up, look up.”

The theme of this year’s camp, as Tyler’s mother Tashona put it, was ​“dedication and commitment,” no matter the elements. It was also about, pretty much everyone involved seemed to agree, the Booker family, and their larger family and friends supporting them in their efforts to uplift the next generation. 

The camp, which Tyler announced back in March, was free for anyone from fifth to eighth grade. A star offensive lineman and standout student at the vaunted University of Alabama, the New Haven native, who attended high school at the IMG Academy in Florida, has pledged to give back to the area where, as he put it, ​“he first fell in love with the game.” 

“Yes, it’s raining, but it’s football,” Tashona said, noting that the majority of the campers arrived at 9:30 a.m. for the 10 a.m. registration. ​“This rain is weeding out the football players from the non-football players.” 

Down on the field, JB Bernadel was leading a group of running backs through a series of drills.

“A lot of good energy here,” said Bernadel, who played football at Michigan State with Tyler’s uncle Ulish Booker, and was among the dozen or so coaches who volunteered their time and expertise at the camp.

“This is a lot of footwork training, teaching them to open up their hips, bend their knees, accelerate, decelerate, just teaching them good habits,” he said, amid the driving rain. 

“A lot of these kids, they look up to Tyler, they want to emulate him, and I’m all about helping them do that,” said Bernadel, who also coaches the New Haven Steelers Pop Warner football team.

Levi Jordan was observing his son, Tyrone Stevenson, from a walkway above the stands. He said his son, a high honors student, would be attending Notre Dame in West Haven, 

Jordan, a former all-state quarterback for West Haven High School, said he helped Tyler with skills and drills training when Tyler played for the New Haven Steelers, and got to know the Booker family.

“His dad Will did a great job in raising him, his mom too,” he said. 

“And now kids look up to Tyler,” he said. ​“Kids get inspired by him. They see what they can be.”

Nearby, Tyler’s older sister Jailen Booker, while ensuring that each camper got a T shirt, backpack, and water bottle, and coordinating the delivery of boxes of sandwiches and cookies for lunch, took a moment to follow the action on the field.

“These kids are determined, they’re willing to sacrifice their comfort to prepare and train to be the best they can be,” she said. ​“That’s what this camp is all about.” 

She said she and her family had been working on the camp for several months.

“We’ve been reaching out to facilities, to sponsors willing to donate items, and asking for volunteers, and everyone has come through, everyone has been great,” she said. 

“This is for our community and by our community,” she said. 

A few feet from her, a trio of her friends worked the registration table under a tent. 

“We’re friends of the family, and we support Tyler in whatever he does,” said Naydrine Straker who, like Jailen, is a UConn graduate. ​“He’s a prominent figure, a role model, and he’s doing very well. He wants to give back and help kids and we’re always going to show up to help him.” 

“I think it means a lot in this community that he’s made it to this level, and kids came out here in the pouring rain because they want to be inspired, and they love football,” said Kayla Robinson.

Seated under a tent on the upper level of the stands, Terri Simmons, Tyler’s aunt, said she came out to show support. 

“When Tyler was four, we would be watching football and he would explain to me everything that was going on. He was always serious about football. He would say ​‘I’m going to go to the NFL,’” she said, as rain pelted the ground.

She recalled her mother, Frances Bradshaw, telling those around Tyler, ​“he’s gotta get used to the light because he’s gonna be a star.”

“Just to see what he’s bringing to this community, what he can do here for the younger boys, I’m not that knowledgeable about football, but I know that I’m proud of my nephew,” she said. 

Under another tent, a group of volunteers, decked out in dripping raingear, were preparing to help with lunch.

“Our sons played together with Tyler when they were five,” said ​“team mom” Tawanna Lasane. 

“We’re out here for all the kids and for Tashona and the Booker family,” Twonya Smalls said, adding she’s known Tashona since high school. 

Beside her was her husband Jermaine Smalls, who coaches the 12-and-unders of the New Haven Steelers. 

“This event is helping keep kids off the streets and teaching them good habits,” he said.

Hannibal Gibson, another volunteer, agreed. ​“There are life lessons being taught on that field that are bigger than football,” he said. 

He praised Tyler for giving back to the place he came from,” and ​“helping the young kids, giving them what we didn’t have.” 

Derrick Suggs was unpacking boxes packed with tuna sandwiches, and turkey and cheese sandwiches. There were others filled with chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies, and still others with bags of chips. 

“This is all from the Eat Up Foundation and Gorilla Lemonade,” Suggs said, referring to the nonprofit designed to combine Kristen Threatt’s business smarts and Burkett-Thompson’s cooking chops to change communities for the better. In 2022, Eat Up released Gorilla Lemonade which is currently in 85 locations around Connecticut and in February became the first Black-owned beverage supplier at Yale.

“We’re all about partnering with Tyler and the Booker family to make life better for anyone who’s struggling here in New Haven.” 

By then, the campers, along with the coaches, volunteers, and families, were slogging across the soggy lawns to the Walter Camp Athletic Center.

There, the roughly 75 campers congregated on the basketball court, awaiting the awards ceremony. 

“We learned a lot about footwork,” said Jeremiah Smalls, who described himself as a running back and linebacker. He said he wants to play in the NFL.

Aiden Morse traveled from Newark, N.J. to attend the camp. 

“I’m good, but I wanted to get better,” he said. ​“I want to play in college, then in the NFL,” he said, adding that he models his game after New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley.

With that, Tyler Booker appeared before the campers. Everyone grew quiet.

“I appreciate you guys coming out today,” he said. ​“I appreciate you guys working hard. If there’s anything you take from today, it’s always give back if you can.”

After the awards ceremony — Levi Jordan’s son, Tyrone, took home MVP for running backs — Coach Joe Spagnolo from Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, N.Y. took the floor.

“Someone like Tyler Booker, like Ellis Robinson IV,” he said, referring to the nationally top-ranked junior cornerback from New Haven, ​“these are young men coming out of Connecticut, and they checked every single box, every single day.” 

“If you’re committed to it, you’re dedicated to it, you gotta come out and do it every day in the rain and the snow, and every kind of weather, and you guys showed that today.” 

Another coach sounded a similar refrain. 

“On and off the field, everyone in this room, listen to this,” he said, the campers hanging on his every word. ​“Be smart, do the right thing, stay focused, work out, finish strong.”

He then offered a parting piece of advice.

“Remember, to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is to have never arrived.”

As the players crossed the gymnasium to get their lunches, Tyler Booker reflected on the day.

“It went well,” he said. ​“The weather wasn’t so great, but the kids got a whole lot out of it, and that’s the point, and they had a whole lot of fun. They’re still having fun.”

“I can’t wait for next year.”