Alumni Profile

From the Football Field to the Flight Deck:
Lamont Tillery ’09

Lamont Tillery ’09 came to Central from Long Island after being recruited to play football, enjoying a successful four-year career as a Blue Devil. It was a football trip that first sparked an unexpected career interest. When the team chartered a flight to play Western Michigan, Tillery remembers thinking aviation seemed “really cool.” With no aviation major at Central, Lamont studied business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship, gaining skills he knew would serve him throughout his career. After graduation, Lamont moved to Houston to begin his career at a law firm, and where he still calls home, with his fiancée, Josie, and his year-and-a-half-old daughter, Sonoma. He eventually took his first flight lesson and was hooked.

For four years, he worked full time while attending flight school, followed by another two years completing the flight hours needed to earn his Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certification. Today, Lamont is captain of a Gulfstream G5 jet for a private charter company. He credits several people at Central with influencing his journey, including Mike Ansarra, Mike Ericksen, economics professor Mitch Charkiewicz, and the athletic trainers who helped him return to the football field after an injury. Central is also a family connection: Lamont’s younger brother, Lawrence, graduated from CCSU five years after him. Lamont continues to give back because he is proud of the foundation he and his teammates helped build. He returns to campus whenever he can and is always impressed by Central’s growth and improvements. “I want to see the school and the football program continue to mature and grow,” he says. From Blue Devil football to the flight deck, Lamont’s journey is a great example of how an experience at Central can take you somewhere you never expected.