For Vian’s Londell Taylor, it’s not how he started or how he finished — so to speak.

Well before his trek began toward athletic hero status in the Vian school sports scene, he and his longtime friend, neighbor and future teammate, Seth Sloan, were playing on a riding mower. The two little kids drove the mower into a ditch and flipped it atop the two of them.

Just last week, after finishing his senior baseball season, he burned his throwing arm pouring gasoline on a brush fire. As was the case the first time, he dodged major injuries.

On the in between, talk to anyone associated with Vian athletics and they’ll tell you about his 100 percent dedication, practice or game time. It’s a large part of what helped him achieve this year’s Phoenix Male Athlete of the Year award.

But hold off just a second on the perfect attendance medal for Taylor, who on Friday was the only area senior named to the All-State baseball team.

There was this one occasion during basketball season when a trip to Conway, Ark., beckoned. It was, as it would have seemed at the time, Londell’s best chance to play college football as the University of Central Arkansas invited him for a visit.

That night, his hoops teammates were upended by Okay.

“Three weeks later,” said Vian basketball coach Leland Williams, “he was back and we played them again. We beat them pretty handily.”

That’s the kind of impact Taylor had, be it football, basketball or baseball. He was a key component in getting the Wolverines within fingertip reach of three gold balls. His 65-yard third-quarter interception return had the Wolverines up 20-14 against Millwood in the Class 2A football championship game in December before losing by one point. It was his length-of-the floor dribble and basket in the final 10 seconds of regulation that enabled Vian to send the area consolation final to overtime and eventually, with the win, to the 3A state basketball tournament for the first time ever.

The conquered opponent, Spiro, would again feel his pain in baseball. Taylor took a no-hitter into the seventh but maintained a 1-0 shutout to ticket Vian for the 3A baseball state tournament. Early on in that game after walking two batters to load the bases in the first inning, Taylor recovered by striking out the side.

In football, he caught 47 passes for 1,171 yards and 16 touchdowns and had nine interceptions for four touchdowns. He led the basketball team in scoring (13.0) and rebounds (10.4). In baseball, he hit .543 and was one RBI short of leading the team in every offensive category.

He was an All-Phoenix selection in all three sports.

And, as it turned out, there would be more scholarship opportunities than UCA. There was that trip to the University of North Carolina, where current assistant coach (and former OU coach) John Blake and other staff watched Vian and Taylor play basketball in the Jay Tournament on Jan. 22. Blake returned to Oklahoma with UNC head coach Butch Davis, a Tahlequah native and former head coach of Miami (Fla.) and the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, and defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano to watch Taylor’s team play at Hulbert on Jan. 30, the Tuesday before he visited the Tar Heels.

While on that trip to Chapel Hill, N.C., Vian football coach Brandon Tyler’s name came across Taylor’s cell phone. Bob Stoops wanted to speak to him. The coach of the team of Taylor’s childhood dreams.

“That’s a jersey we wore all the time growing up, playing in the end zone at high school games,” Taylor said. “Chapel Hill was really nice, but we’re talking about the University of Oklahoma. I thought he (Tyler) was joking.”

No joke.

“I’d just say it ’til I die. It’s our location,” Tyler said. (Sooners defensive coordinator Brent) Venables said if he’d been in Dallas he’d have had 30 offers.”



Shaped by

another’s dreams



None of the attention has affected Taylor.

“If he was a kid you met, you’d never think of his attitude that he does things athletically a lot of kids can’t do,” Wolverines baseball coach John Brockman said. “A lot of times kids with his talent have that cockiness. He never got it.”

Taylor’s dad, Londell Sr., said he’s always been that way. His dad dabbled in various sports but committed to focus on boxing in the Fort Smith Boys Club as a 125-pounder.

“His cousin shaped him as much as anybody,” Londell Sr. said. That cousin was Terrill Francis, who prior to his senior season at Vian in 1999 had already committed to OU just as Stoops had arrived from Steve Spurrier’s staff at Florida. Francis’ plans were halted, though, when he died in his sleep due to a heart condition. He never made it to his senior season opener.

“He is living Terrill’s dream,” Taylor’s mother, Sandra Taylor, said back in February when he signed with OU. “He thinks of Terrill as a guardian angel. ... It’s a dream for him, too.”

“He was low-key and a lot of what he learned about sports he learned from him. He was just a great influence,” Londell Sr. said.

Sloan grew up just down from road from the Taylor’s house. Aside from mower mishaps, the two would be part of many youth league teams and eventually play football and basketball together.

“Obviously I didn’t know it at the time, but going against him in practice, knowing I was throwing to as a receiver and against a guy who would be playing the secondary for Oklahoma, it’s something that I can tell my kids one day, but it also gets me ready for what I’ll face at SMU,” Sloan said.

Taylor could have played college basketball. Connors State was looking at him in both basketball and baseball. Turns out, Taylor still has another option — at least a dozen major league baseball teams have looked his way as a possible selection in the Amateur Draft come June. Some are projecting him possibly as early as the 12th round and at least three teams — Detroit, Minnesota and Florida — are seriously interested.

Toss in the mix of decision making that Taylor’s favorite sport is baseball. He’s played it longer than the other sports, dating back to when he joined Sloan’s coachpitch team.

“It would take a lot of money to keep me away from football,” he said. “I love baseball but given the opportunity I have in football it would be real hard to turn away from that.”

The draft is in June.

Dad leans toward baseball, but either way, agrees the choice is a good one.

“For me, it’s the health issue of what your body goes through in football as opposed to baseball,” Londell Sr. said. “But either way, I’m good with it.”

Taylor is the second straight Vian athlete to get this award. Last year, after setting a state record for touchdowns in a season and also starring in basketball, Vfastv Locust laid claim to the prize. Locust and Taylor are part of the same graduating class.

“I was part of a talented group,” Taylor said. “Any one of them could have deserved to receive this.”

Which is why, above the one-hitter in regionals he called his first ever and his most special of sports moments, his lasting memory of his high school time will be one away from the field.

“Graduation,” he said. “I’m leaving a lot of good friends behind.”