Defensive tackle Dante Booker has taken an unusual path to Auburn

09/11/02

AUBURN - As Dante Booker remembers it, he was 10 years old, maybe 11. He seemed headed for trouble, like so many in the Akron, Ohio, neighborhood where he grew up.

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He'd been sent to a juvenile detention center for two days, not an unusual event in his life. His mother picked him up and took him home.

''She said 'Go upstairs. I'm Auburn notebook. Page E5. TV: Vanderbilt at Auburn, Saturday, 11:30 a.m., Channel 54 going to beat your butt,''' Booker said. ''I'm upstairs crying and scared, waiting for her to come up and punish me. She came up and I was hiding under my bed. She busted out in tears. She said 'I'm tired of you doing this. I don't want to see you in jail.'

''Seeing her crying, seeing her pain, I said 'I'm going to work hard and do right.' ''

Today, Booker, who will be 25 in October, is nearing the end of a most unlikely journey. He's a senior defensive tackle at Auburn. He's on track to get a degree in sociology.

Booker was a high school basketball star, earning all-city three times. He gave up football after his freshman season. When he decided as an adult with a child that he wanted to give college football a try, he knew the odds were long.

But Booker, the second of Valerie Booker's four sons, had overcome long odds before.

He was working odd jobs to help support his family before he was 10. There were times when the food his mother brought home from her job as a cook was all that kept the family fed.

In Booker's neighborhood, a boy didn't have to look far to see who had the nice cars, the fancy clothes, the cash. It was the drug dealers.

''You want to survive,'' Booker said. ''You want to have the things he has. It's real hard to keep your head straight. I was led down that path somewhat, but I put the brakes on. I figured there had to be something different.''

Not even he could have imagined just how different his life would be.

When Auburn opens its Southeastern Conference schedule against Vanderbilt on Saturday, the 6-foot-4, 277-pounder will be a second-team defensive tackle. He'll be in the game early and often. He was named defensive player of the week for his performance in the Tigers' 56-0 victory over Western Carolina.

Booker was unsure what to do with his life after he graduated from high school and spent some time working. He knew he wanted to make a future for his son, Dante Jr., now 6. His minister, John Saucier, volunteered to help.

''We made a videotape of me slam dunking,'' Booker said. ''We went to the weight room and I lifted weights. He took me down to the track and I ran like a 4.6 40.''

Booker ended up at Montgomery College in Rockville, Md., as a sophomore. He had 12 sacks and began to get recruiting letters, but there were questions about whether he would be eligible.

''They didn't have scholarships,'' Booker said. ''You were on your own. There was no insurance or anything. I found a job at Denny's and found an apartment with two roommates. I worked full time as a cook, played football and went to school. Sometimes I'd be late to practice because I had to work.''

Former Auburn defensive coordinator John Lovett expressed interest in Booker, who had to pass 20 hours in the summer to be eligible. He did it and reported to Auburn last August.

''Daddy Book,'' as his teammates call him, is easily the strongest man on the Auburn football team. He bench presses more than 500 pounds and has remarkable speed and agility for his size. But he's a football neophyte playing in the SEC.

''If I had learned the game at an early age like everybody I'm playing with obviously did, there's no telling,'' Booker said.

Auburn defensive tackles coach Don Dunn wonders, too, but he says Booker has made remarkable progress.

''He's come light years,'' Dunn said. ''When he got here, he didn't know what was going on. He was in terrible condition. The other day, he won all our sprints after practice. A year ago, he'd have been lying back there on the hill.''

Booker's teammates come to him for fatherly advice. A devout Christian, he offers it readily. Even his coaches look at him in a different light.

''He's not going to respond to a guy ranting and raving at him,'' Dunn said. ''A young guy might be a little intimidated, but you're not going to intimidate Dante Booker. He could snap me in half if he wanted to.

''I respect what he's been through. I get mad at him, but it's more of a man-to-man thing.''