Patriots’ Austin Hooper, Bay Area native, is ‘smelling the roses’ in Super Bowl homecoming

It’s not like coming back home is anything novel for Austin Hooper, who still visits De La Salle’s campus in the summer to train with his high school alma mater after 10 years in the NFL. And this isn’t his first Super Bowl, either.

But both? At the same time?

“That’s what makes this one that much more special,” the New England Patriots tight end told the Bay Area News Group this week.

A decade after his first Super Bowl ended in heartbreak, as a rookie on the Falcons team that infamously let a 28-3 lead slip away, the San Mateo native, now 31, said this time he is “definitely smelling the roses more. … I don’t know how many years I’ve got left.”

Come Sunday, Hooper will be the only player on either side of New England’s Super Bowl 60 matchup against the Seahawks to take the field at Levi’s Stadium in front of his hometown fans.

A fortunate 15 family members will be in attendance. Everyone else, including his coach at De La Salle, Bob Ladouceur, will be tuning in from home. Or, in Lad’s case, “on my huge TV,” the happily retired coaching legend chuckled, recounting his four years with a teenage Hooper, which were also his last on the sidelines.

“I’m real proud … it’s really kind of cool,” Ladouceur said. “He learned how to be a football player at De La Salle.”

When Hooper arrived on the Catholic school’s Concord campus in 2008, Ladouceur estimated he tipped the scales at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds. Now, Hooper is listed at 6-foot-4, 254 pounds.

The physical maturation is evident as ever each summer when Hooper’s NFL-sized frame is contrasted against De La Salle’s current group of high school athletes. For a couple weeks every offseason, Hooper still takes part in the Spartans’ conditioning program, current coach Justin Alumbaugh said.

“And he has words for kids, too,” when he outraces their fastest players, Alumbaugh said. “Which I appreciate. … I mean, come on, to come back and run gassers, tires and track with his former high school team, out of the kindness of his heart, I’m not making it up. It’s real.”

Informed of Alumbaugh’s tales of his superiority in the conditioning drills, Hooper smiled modestly.

“I’m supposed to beat kids that are 17 years old,” he said. “But yeah, I go back and train and push myself, just go about it my own way. If the young guys want to work with me, cool. If you want to keep up with me, go for it.”

According to Alumbaugh, Hooper has been even more hands-on than he lets on. He will participate in their 7-on-7 drills on the scout team and lend his positional expertise to all of De La Salle’s tight ends, most recently Landon Cook, who signed with Oregon State.

“Showing our tight ends how to create space, things like that,” Alumbaugh said. “I’m like, ‘Guys, I don’t think you know what’s happening right now.’ … It’s pretty incredible to see somebody of his stature give back in the way that he does.”

While Hooper’s football mortality may be on his mind, a decade-long career as a tight end, with two Pro Bowl nods, wasn’t exactly an outcome Alumbaugh envisioned when he met him at 15 years old.

A blue-chip prospect who eventually chose Stanford, where the Patriots happen to be practicing this week, it was a “coin flip” whether Hooper would pursue the offensive or defensive side of the ball, Alumbaugh told recruiters back then.

After all, Ladouceur and Alumbaugh agreed that Hooper’s most memorable game with the Spartans came as a defensive end, in their 2012 state championship game against Centennial.

“He did a lot of damage when he was on our defense,” Ladouceur said. “He was quick off the ball, he was strong and no running backs could block him.”

De La Salle’s two-way players would typically take some snaps off on one side of the ball, but Ladouceur said, “I didn’t want him coming off the field.”

On offense, in De La Salle’s run-heavy veer system, Hooper played a “critical” role, Ladouceur said, setting blocks for their ground game but also keeping defenses on their toes with play-action passes.

“So he did a lot of blocking,” Ladouceur said. “But he did a lot of route-running, too.”

In other words, setting the foundations for a career as an NFL tight end.

Plenty of De La Salle alumni populate the professional ranks, and the program’s blood typically runs deep, but with Hooper, Alumbaugh said, “that’s a very dark blood right there, that’s very deep.”

Ladouceur sees De La Salle’s lasting impact on Hooper in every facet of his game: The weightlifting program led by a Division I strength and conditioning coach, the Xs and Os that established them as a national powerhouse, the life lessons instilled by the coaching staff.

When Hooper was posed the same question, he leaned toward the latter.

“Probably selflessness, the ability to think about the team first and not do what’s required but do what’s necessary,” he said. “It definitely left a lasting impression on me, so I always feel the need to give back.”

After a career spent between Atlanta and New England, Hooper’s roots just might shine brightest in his pre-Super Bowl diet.

“I’ve just been eating a lot of Mexican food since I got back here,” he said.