Joshua Langford has stared death in the face.
It was six years ago when the current Madison Academy senior basketball star worked through football two-a-days in late summer with his Riverton Middle teammates. Langford started getting tired easily. He first thought he was just out of shape, but then came headaches, a spiking fever and hallucinations.
Langford soon learned he had bacterial meningitis, a life-threatening infection in which there is inflammation of the membranes surrounding the spinal cord and brain.
"Basically, I was on my deathbed," said Langford, the No. 1 player on AL.com's A-List of the state's top senior basketball prospects. "The doctors didn't know if I would make it. It was real scary. It was a life-threatening situation. At 12 years old, that's kind of hard to come to grips with."
Langford, now, 18, spent about a week and a half in the hospital, then another week or two at home with a nurse visiting daily. His father, Tellus, had just landed in Iraq for a job assignment when Langford was hospitalized.
The diagnosis provided a cruel case of deja vu for Tellus. While attending North Alabama in 1994, he lost a cousin to bacterial meningitis three years prior to the exact day of Joshua's birth.
"It was terrifying," Tellus said of his reaction to the news of his son Joshua. "I was really scared. (My employer) said I could leave and go home, but it would take me three or four days to get home and I'd be out of contact. And I did not want to be out of contact. It was a very scary time.
"At the end of the day, I came to the conclusion that it was all in God's plans. There wasn't anything I could do here that I couldn't do over there, which was basically to pray for God's will to be done."
Joshua made a full recovery, growing about three inches during the ordeal, and was back playing basketball a couple of months later.
"They told him he wasn't going to be able to hear, that he wasn't going to be able to run, that he'd never be able to play sports again," Tellus said. "God saw different, though."
Flash forward to today day and Joshua has grown into a 6-foot-6 Michigan State signee. He's a four-time Class 3A Player of the Year, a two-time Gatorade Alabama Player of the Year and a two-time state champion. He enters his senior season as one of the favorites to win Mr. Basketball.
Langford celebrates signing
"I feel tremendously blessed," Joshua said. "It was a life-threatening situation. I could have been dead and not here talking right now. I feel blessed from God."
Added Tellus: "I'm just grateful for Joshua being Joshua. You don't find many kids who received the accolades he's received and be as humble as he was. It speaks to him coming back like that. It speaks to his determination, his drive, his resilience, his perseverance. All the things you need to be successful in life, let alone on a basketball court."
AL.COM 2015-16 A-LIST
Alabama's top senior boys basketball players
1. Joshua Langford, Madison Academy, 6-6, G, Michigan State
2. Javien Williams, Woodlawn, 6-4, G, UAB
3. Kevin Morris, Dothan, 6-8, F, South Alabama
4. Reginald Todd, Blount, 6-5, G, New Mexico State
5. Justin Hopkins, J.O. Johnson, 6-4, G/F, Samford
6. Triston Chambers, Cold Springs, 6-2, G, Samford
7. E.J. Datcher, Vincent, 6-9, F
8. C.J. Jones, Central Park Christian, 6-4, G, Chattanooga
9. Darian Adams, Carver-Montgomery, 6-3, G, Troy
10. Cam Horton, Jacksonville, 6-1, G
RELATED: See the girls A-List
MORE THAN A BASKETBALL STAR
Considering all of his accomplishments and accolades, one has to wonder what's left to drive Langford in his senior season. But for him, it's obvious.
"Just to be a leader, be a spiritual leader as well," Langford said. "I feel like in past years I've been somewhat of a leader, but not a spiritual leader. Just try to win and be the best I can be every day."
Spirituality is an important aspect of Langford's life. He teaches boys Sunday school at New Zion Steadfast Primitive Baptist Church in Toney, and he delivers the morning sermon every third Sunday. Langford speaks at MA's chapel services and he blessed the food at last year's Mr. and Miss Basketball awards banquet in Montgomery.
One of the people who has closely watched Langford's spiritual growth is his Bible teacher at Madison Academy for the past two years, Mustangs basketball coach Andy Blackston.
"He has a real interest in it," Blackston said of the class. "Even the assignments we do, he engages them. He doesn't just blow them off. There's a depth to the way he tries to process and understand those things with the spiritual side of his life. Because he does have faith, he does believe."
That's one of several things the public, whose general knowledge of Langford is his highlight shots and dunks, might be surprised to learn about him. He's volunteered at the Downtown Rescue Mission and the Special Olympics, coached youth basketball, and he writes poetry in his spare time. In other words, Langford doesn't live the life associated with a five-star prospect who was courted by colleges from coast-to-coast. He's a soft-spoken, down-to-earth soul.
"Josh is a well-rounded person and I think he wants to be known for more than just being a basketball player," Blackston said. "That's what makes him unique. He has other dimensions of his personality."
"I'm just a normal kid," Langford said. "I like to hang out with my friends. Just spend time with my family. Do normal kid stuff."
ONE CHAPTER CLOSES
Langford and his Madison Academy teammates are favorites to repeat as 3A state champs as four starters return (the fifth starter, center Austin Troxell, suffered a knee injury in a playoff football game Nov. 5 and is expected to miss the entire season). Langford expects to play with more confidence than ever.
"Of course I feel more relaxed because a lot of that pressure of recruitment is off of me," he said. "But it also feels different because I'm a senior. This is my last go-around and I want to make it the best. So, overall, it's a funny feeling. It seems like time flew by fast. I'm taking it all in and I'm ready to get started."
RELATED: Madison Academy rolls to state title
Langford has been fast out of the gates. He scored 26 points in a season-opening 70-45 win over St. John Paul II on Monday, then followed with 26 points in a 68-32 victory over Madison County on Thursday.
But regardless of how well this season goes on the court, it's not athletics that Langford feels proudest of when looking back at his time at Madison Academy.
"I'm just most proud of my overall growth," he said. "I feel like growth is important because, if you're not growing, I feel like you're not improving. I feel like I grew tremendously over the years."