He walks through the Airline High field house with his colorful-but-undersized Marvel backpack, stops by the coaches’ office to turn in some paperwork that he kept forgetting to drop off and then heads out after another day of football practice.
His truck is backed into his personalized painted parking spot. As if he needed more identification, “#11” is shoe-polished onto the back window.
Everything about this scene just screams “high school senior.”
But Ben Taylor isn’t just any ordinary high school senior. There aren’t many seniors walking around any high school with more than 8,000 yards and 88 touchdown passes already on their resume.
“He has far exceeded my expectations,” third-year Airline coach Justin Scogin says. “I thought he was going to be a good quarterback and a kid I thought we could win big with. But I never expected him to have the success that he has had.”
To be honest, Taylor is actually a little surprised by it as well.
“I had hoped to have a great high school career, but God has blessed me in tremendous ways,” he says. “We had Coach Scogin come after my freshman year and then all the tremendous athletes we have around me. There’s definitely a lot of work I’ve put it, but I’ve been blessed by those around me to get to this point.”
There are a lot of gaudy numbers to try to work though. After all, he’s only a couple of out-routes away from being in the Top 10 for career passing in Shreveport-Bossier history – and that’s without even playing a down in his senior year.
Taylor is still trying to figure out how he got here so quickly.
“Everybody tells you it’s going to go by fast, but you don’t really think it will.” Taylor says. “But then when you actually get there, you realize you only have one season left.”
Doesn’t it seem as though it was only a few weeks ago that he was tossed into a game as a freshman to play quarterback against Haughton? No matter how long ago it actually was, he still remembers the feeling that came over him that night.
“Panic,” he says.
It was the sixth week of the 2021 season and the Airline season was headed nowhere. Down 10-0 to Haughton in a District 1-5A, Taylor was put into the game in a what-the-heck situation. And promptly threw an interception.
Panic.
Next drive, another interception.
More panic.
On the third drive, things began to click for the freshman as he led the Vikings to a touchdown. Even though Airline recovered the onside kick, they fell short and lost 10-7. Airline went on to finish 1-9. Taylor threw four times as many interceptions as touchdowns that season.
Hard to believe that it’s gone from that to this: A sophomore season of 3,098 yards and 37 touchdowns, then a junior year of 4,189 yards and 49 touchdowns, plus a completion percentage of 73.8. In the last two years, he’s now thrown four times as many touchdowns as interceptions.
“He’s at the point now where I really think he could call the game on Friday nights,” Scogin says. “He knows what to do and what to look for and he’s gotten even better at it this summer. He does things that I don’t think the other quarterbacks I’ve even coached have retained. He’s so sharp.”
“I always want to improve on knowing the right plays and the right reads,” Taylor says. “I want to get better at knowing coverages and defenses and what’s going to be open.”
After making a run to the state quarterfinals a year ago, the Vikings are certainly one of the favorites in District 1-5A this year.
“The goal is always the same – to go to the ‘Dome,” Taylor says. “But Coach Scogin always tells us to take it step by step. The next game is the most important one of the year. It’s the same goal every week.”
Even with significant graduation losses, the Vikings do not lack for weapons in 2024. But it all starts with Taylor and Scogin loves how his quarterback handles success as well as adversity.
“His personality and his work ethic are the two things that jump out and his ability under pressure,” Scogin says. “He doesn’t fold up. He plays his best when he’s under pressure. He wasn’t always like that in the beginning, but the relationship we have had has been great so he knows if he makes a bad throw, he just moves on to the next one. That helps his ability to just have fun and go out there and play and take chances.”
“Obviously it has a whole lot to do with the line and the receivers and the coaches, but I definitely have grown as a leader,” Taylor says. “I stopped worrying about little things and grow into the quarterback/leader role on the team. I just tried to do the right thing with that.”
The Vikings will be in Lake Charles to take on Barbe in the season opener on Sept. 6.
As his final high school season closes in (he’s a Northwestern State commit), Taylor is just taking in all there is to being a senior. There was a beach trip this summer. He’s played more than a few rounds of golf. There was a never-ending series of lifting, running and throwing at the practice field during June and July.
“It’s a great feeling to be a senior,” Taylor says. “I used to look up to the seniors and think about how that would be me one day. Now the freshmen and sophomores are looking up to me and making sure I’m doing the right thing. That thought holds me accountable.”
“The players love him,” Scogin says. “He treats everybody the right way. He’s still humble about everything. My six-year-old just thinks he’s the greatest.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com