Life has been adventure for Peoria resident

Tim Toone’s life has played out like a prime-time TV series.

All the 24-year-old Peoria resident needs is theme music and a season finale.

Toone has served a Mormon mission in the midst of an African civil war and survived two armed robberies, one which led to a murder attempt.

After those experiences, overcoming long odds in football has been the easy part.

Abandoned by college recruiters, the Peoria High School graduate found his way to Weber State in Utah, where he has gone from bench warmer to record-setting receiver, leading the Wildcats to a 6-4 record and putting them on the verge of the NCAA playoffs.

“I really didn’t know how good of a player I would be in college,” Toone said in a phone interview. “I didn’t know if I could continue the success I had in high school.”

Toone was just lucky to be alive.

Toone had been a coveted college football recruit at Peoria, where he earned first-team state honors in 2003 and set a state record by averaging 30.4 yards a catch as a receiver in his senior season.

However, recruiters stopped calling when Toone opted to take his two-year Mormon mission before playing college football. Only Weber State, a Big Sky Conference school, agreed to give him a chance.

After one college semester, Toone began a journey that would take him to West Africa, with stops in the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

“You have a choice to stay in the United States or be sent abroad,” Toone said of his Mormon mission. “I didn’t care where I was sent.”

Toone spent three months learning to speak French, then found himself in the middle of a civil war in the Ivory Coast.

“We rode a lot of buses, and the people left us alone because they knew we didn’t have anything to do with the civil war,” Toone recalled.

Travel bans kept Mormon officials from reaching Toone and his roommates, who had to sequester themselves for a week in their apartment during the height of the strife.

“They kept in touch via telephone and people brought food for them,” said Leeann Toone, Tim’s mother. “There was one phone conversation where you could hear machine-gun fire in the background.”

For safety purposes, Toone transferred to Sierra Leone.

Unfortunately, more trouble awaited in the country depicted in the 2006 Leonardo DiCaprio movie, “Blood Diamond.” The movie provided a composite account of diamond mining in war-torn Africian countries, with profits directed to warlords and diamond companies across the world.

Toone didn’t have any diamonds, yet he was taken hostage during a 3 a.m. robbery at his apartment.

Robbers decided they could use him as a negotiating chip in their efforts to break into other apartments.

“I didn’t know anything about the attack until Tim sent us an e-mail and made a reference to doing well and getting out of the hospital,” Leeann Toone said. “I went ballistic when I saw the reference to a hospital.”

Robbers wrapped Toone’s head in a baby blanket that had been presented to him as a good-luck gift by his grandmother. They subsequently proceeded to march him around the complex. When they were done with him, one attacker tried to stab him.

“They tried to kill him, but for some reason, the knife didn’t work,” his mother said.

Toone survived to continue his two-year mission, completing the rest of his time in Ghana.

Even then, trouble found him when he unwittingly became an armed robbery victim in a grocery store.

“I know a lot happened, but I still look back on my time there as a positive experience,” Toone said. “The people over there are so poor, yet they share everything they have. I’m glad I went there.”

Toone had no time for football on his mission and was out of shape when he returned to Weber State. He also arrived on campus to find a new coaching staff that had not been involved in his recruitment.

Toone subsequently suffered through several injuries, including a broken rib and a torn labrum in his shoulder.

As he did with his Mormon mission, Toone stayed with it, eventually landing a role as a deep threat at receiver.
As a sophomore, the 5-foot-10 Toone relied on his speed and route-running skills to catch 32 passes for 688 yards and 10 touchdowns.

His junior season proved to be exponentially better, when he caught 84 passes for a single-season Big Sky Conference record of 1,525 yards with seven touchdowns.

“His work ethic in the weight room and on the field is incredible,” Weber State coach Ron McBride told The Salt Lake Tribune. “He’s really established himself as the go-to guy.

“He’s mellow, and the pressure doesn’t bother him.”

Toone has gotten more defensive attention this season, which has reduced his numbers to 66 receptions for 882 yards and seven touchdowns.

Despite that defensive focus, Toone still became the seventh player in Big Sky history to record 3,000 receiving yards. He also became a YouTube video sensation earlier this year with a four-touchdown game against Sacramento State.

That game included a Big Sky-record 98-yard punt return for a touchdown. He added a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown last week in a win against Northern Arizona, one of the schools which stopped recruiting him because of his Mormon mission.

With a home win on Saturday against Cal Poly, 19th-ranked Weber State will likely land a bid to the Football Championship Subdivison playoffs.

Toone’s success also has drawn attention from NFL scouts, who have begun to make frequent stops in Ogden.

Toone is always easy to spot — he’s the one with the dreadlocks waving underneath his Weber State helmet.

“My teammates and I decided to do it last year when we noticed the Hawaii receivers all had dreadlocks,” Toone recalled.

“I’m the only one who has kept it because they are difficult to maintain.”

TIM TOONE
   AGE: 24
   VITALS: 5-foot-10, 175 pounds
   PARENTS: Steve and Leeann Toone
   HIGH SCHOOL: Peoria (2003 graduate)
   MAJOR: Physical therapy
   FAVORITE MOVIE: “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
   FAVORITE ATHLETE: Larry Fitzgerald of Arizona Cardinals
   FAST FACT: Toone has twice been named special teams player of the week and national special teams player by Sports Network.  He has returned two punts for touchdowns this season and leads the nation in punt return average at 21.22 yards per return.