Lunenburg to La-La Land: Logan Taylor chases lifelong NFL dream

Before Logan Taylor's 10th birthday, he was already over six feet tall, dwarfing his opponents on the soccer field.

"I would always get fouls and penalties and everything for kind of being too rough out there, so yeah, I definitely stood out when it came to size," said the now 24-year-old Nova Scotian who grew up in Lunenburg.

Taylor said one day a coach of a local football team had a conversation with his dad.

"He was like, 'Hey, you got to get your son out here,'" said Taylor. "And from the day I stepped onto the football field, I loved the team aspect and I just loved the contact, so it was just a great fit for me and [I'm] just very thankful that I got that opportunity.”

Fast-forward to today and the six-foot-seven-inch, 312-pound offensive lineman is living in Los Angeles going through his first training camp with the NFL's Chargers, months after being selected in the sixth round of the NFL Draft. He's the highest-selected born and raised Nova Scotian taken in the NFL Draft.

It's the culmination of a lifelong dream that meant moving away at 14 from his home in the tiny seaside South Shore community. This has included stops in Timberlea, N.S., Virginia and Massachusetts to chase his dream.

While Nova Scotia has produced hockey stars such as Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, the list of born-and-raised Bluenosers who have played in a regular-season game in the NFL is a short one: Tyrone Williams and Steve Morley.

Because the high school in Bridgewater, N.S., he was supposed to attend did not have a football program, Taylor moved to Timberlea for his grades 10 and 11 years to attend what was then known as Sir John A. Macdonald High School.

Kathy and Brian Mason were his billet parents. Brian Mason said when Taylor