There was Taylor Frost, pushing pedals and gliding through the parking lot on a bicycle outside of Fort Scott Community College while a mob of teammates ran alongside and caused a commotion. As Frost geared up to turn the corner, his teammates shouted encouragement.
“Okay Tay!”
“Take off!”
“Oh s***!”
Frost’s unlikely achievement and his teammates’ reaction has since become one of college basketball’s most viral stories this season. The video of Frost’s ride has well over a million views on each major social media platform and has taken on a life of its own. It will be the most widely-remembered piece of Fort Scott’s season, and for good reason.
Sherry Jannell Williams, who is Frost’s mom, said she burst into tears immediately when she saw the ride. The moment was meaningful because she had always badly wanted her son to learn how to ride and because of what it indicated about her son’s team.
“Watching young men cheer on their teammate made people feel like there is still good in the world,” Williams told HoopsHQ. “I’m so glad the coaching staff thought enough of my son to have his brothers teach him a skill that so many take for granted. It was truly a special moment.”
The five-game losing streak that Fort Scott was in the midst of could’ve pulled the spirit out of this group, but Fort Scott head coach Matt Glover needed to make sure that didn’t happen. So, Glover lectured his team about the importance of keeping the morale up and his intention of facilitating more team-building activities. By the end of the talk, Glover told his team to turn around and look out the window a day after one of its losses. Through the window was a bike.
Everyone in the room knew what the bike being there indicated. They all knew what was coming.
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In the days prior to that practice, the topic of bike riding came up at an informal team dinner in the cafeteria. When Frost had his turn to speak, he confessed that he didn’t know how to ride one. Everyone was shocked, Frost said. The group of Frost’s teammates that were present altered the entire team group chat nearly immediately. When Glover found out, he told Frost that he was going to teach him how to ride a bike.
Frost’s mom, Sherry Jannell Williams, says she remembers going to Toys R Us when Frost was a kid to purchase his first tricycle. Frost couldn’t get it down, though. She then bought him another bike, and no dice. Priorities shifted as a result of year-round basketball, but she says that her son never learned how to ride a bike and make the memories that she did as a kid.
Of Fort Scott’s 18 players, Frost was the only one that hasn’t mastered that skill yet. As the freshman who is redshirting this season and his teammates left the practice floor that day and walked towards the bike, though, he knew he likely wasn’t going to leave that parking lot until he figured this out. It took nearly an hour of trial and error, unbalanced rides and the frustration of Frost failing to figure this out. But he got it.
“At first I wasn’t even riding it for real, but once I did it was fun seeing everybody cheer me on,” Frost told HoopsHQ. “It was a fun time.”
Frost’s mom posted a video of the ride on her Facebook page. After seeing how much attention it got, she then posted it on TikTok, where it first broke the 100,000 view mark. From there, a number of prominent media companies and personalities shared the video and turned it viral.
“I never would’ve thought it would resonate with so many people,” Williams said. “The comments have been beautiful. In my original post, I spoke about my failure to teach him; I tried, but I just couldn’t make it happen. The kindness of strangers has been breathtaking.”
“I was just shocked,” Frost added.
Frost said life has been “crazy” since the video took off. He lost count of how many classmates approached him about it. Frost says the video blowing up like it has is “weird.” These days he does interviews. His name is known by some all over the country and he’s put his program all on the map. He didn’t even have to step on the court to do it.
Perhaps the moment appears on the surface to be more indicative of a program taking advantage of a fun circumstance, but those around Fort Scott believe it to be indicative of the culture that Glover has tried to build. Williams says the moment is indicative of Glover’s leadership, which she says is “both powerful and essential.”
Glover’s program isn’t featuring Frost much on the floor this season, but he’s not a player that Glover and assistant coach Caleb Ligon have overlooked. The spirit of the bike ride has shown how important Frost can be to this program, whether he plays or not. Frost hopes the randomness of his newfound celebrity will be meaningful beyond what he does on the floor.
“I came here to Fort Scott to develop as a basketball player,” Frost said. “My coach also tried to tell me to become a better person and become a better man. Me learning how to ride a bike was really an essential skill that you need to know. I feel like everybody needs to know so I’m glad, I’m grateful that I was able to learn out here.”
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