Antwon Taylor

"*You can't hide from life. Eventually, you have to live it.*"
―Antwon Taylor

**Antwon Charles "Skills" Taylor** was a former student of Tree Hill High School who would then return to coach the Ravens, a team he was once a part of. Hailing from the River Court, Skills joined the Ravens to get into College and eventually succeeded. In his adulthood, he had an ill-fated relationship with Deb Lee and Lauren.

## Character arc

### Season 1

Skills was often seen with Lucas, Junk, Fergie, Jimmy, and Mouth at the river court. He was very good at basketball which was why he was given the nickname of 'Skills'.

### Season 2

Skills hangs out with the river court gang as he was Lucas' male best friend.

### Season 3

Skills begins dating Bevin after she picks him in the fantasy boy draft. The two remain together until some time after their high school graduation. Skills is also one of the hostages in the Tutor Centre during the school shooting. The shooter is his old friend Jimmy Edwards. He later attends Jimmy's funeral and road-trip's to Rachel's cabin with the rest of the gang following the shooting.

### Season 4

Skills finds out that his grades aren't good enough to go to college, so he asks Lucas to ask Whitey to consider let him joining the basketball team to increase his chances of getting a scholarship. He practices day and night and is eventually awarded Lucas' spot on the team after he is forced to drop out due to his HCM. Lucas later rejoins the team, only to be allowed 15 minutes of total game time and the trio of Nathan, Lucas and Skills make the Ravens formidable opponents. Skills and Lucas conspire to freeze out Nathan during the championship game after finding out he is considering throwing after being threatened by Daunte Jones as they want to win the championship for Whitey, which they end up doing when Nathan has a change of heart after learning he is going to have a son. When hanging out with Haley for a class assignment, he discovers that he has been accepted into college. Skills graduates with his friends and hangs out with them on the Rivercourt as they celebrate their graduation.

### Season 5

During the four year time-jump, Skills, Lucas (and later Nathan) are now coaching the Tree Hill Ravens. Skills also shares an apartment with Mouth, Junk and Fergie. Skills starts to date Deb Lee after meeting her online, but he keeps it a secret from Nathan. Skills is babysitting Jamie during Lucas and Lindsay's wedding and during the ceremony, Jamie asks to go to the toilet, saying Lilly will tease him if Skills has to take him. Skills lets him go alone, and while Jamie is gone, he is kidnapped by the psycho Nanny Carrie. After Jamie is returned, Skills still feels terrible about it, believing Haley and Nathan no longer want him to babysit Jamie.

### Season 6

Deb and Skills break up after she tells him he deserves to have children and he starts to date Jamie's teacher, Lauren. He is present at the Wedding of Lucas Scott and Peyton Sawyer, where he is seen to have Jamie on a leash and harness, due to him being previously kidnapped at Lucas and Lindsay's wedding.

### Season 7

At the start of the season, Skills is in love with Lauren and they have a strong and happy relationship. Skills is still looking for a stable career, and Julian gives him the idea of writing plays for movies in Los Angeles. Skills gains a job in the industry and leaves Tree Hill with Mouth, although Mouth returns a short time later. Skills arrives back in Tree Hill and discovers that Mouth has started a relationship with his now ex-girlfriend Lauren. Skills feels betrayed and punches Mouth at Quinn's gallery opening.

### Season 8

Skills is moving around back and forth between LA and Tree Hill. He is mainly around as Mouth's friend, helping him with his struggle with Millie. During Julian and Brooke's wedding, Skills acts as security detail and takes his job way too seriously in order to make sure Julian and Brooke have a perfect wedding and to prevent bad things from happening as Tree Hill had become notorious for bad events happening at weddings.

In This Is My House, This Is My Home, Skills was in the chicken suit to audition as Mel's partner, but Millie came back and Skills was mad from looking like a fool and sweating with embarrassment.

### Season 9

Skills comes back to Tree Hill. Lauren returns, and she reveals that she is pregnant. He thinks the baby is his, and goes to meet her at Karen's Cafe. He tells her that he will be there, for both of them, but he learns that the baby is really Quinn's ex-husband David Fletcher's. Skills becomes the co-host of "Millie and Skills in the Morning" after the newly hired Kylie turns out to be a horrible replacment for Mouth. It is implied in the finale that he gets back together with Bevin.

## Relationships

* *Relationships*: Antwon "Skills" Taylor/Relationships
* *Family*: Antwon "Skills" Taylor/Family

### Family

Skills dad manages a factory, and if Skills wouldn't have gotten a scholarship for basketball, he would have worked there.

### Romantic Life

#### Bevin

Skills got picked by Bevin in the boy draft. At their first date, Bevin "notebooked" him, and they started dating. Right before graduation the met each others parents. They thought that their parent would have a problem with that they had different skin colors, but their parents really liked each other. Skills and Bevin broke up somewhere between season 4 and 5. Bevin and Skills are together at the basketball game in the series finale.

#### Deb Lee

In season 5 he started "dating" a woman online, and they decided to meet each other and it was revealed that it was Deb, Nathan's mom. They started a secret "relationship". When Nathan found out, shortly after Quentin's death, he was really disgusted by it. But he tried to accept it. When Skills said he wanted kids, Deb broke up with him.

#### Lauren

Skills picked up Jamie from school and met his teacher Lauren, and they went on a date, unfortunately Lauren was babysitting Chuck, so they had to take him with them. The date wasn't that much of a success, but they liked each other and started dating. They had a relationship for over a year, but Skills got a job in LA, and moved there. They didn't keep in touch, and while Skills was away, Mouth and Lauren started a relationship and Skills came back, and he found out. Mouth and Lauren ended it. In season 9, Lauren shows up in Tree Hill pregnant. The father of the baby is David Fletcher, Quinn's ex-husband.

## Career

After high school he got a basketball scholarship. When he came back to Tree Hill he became coach for the Ravens. He later became coach for Jamie's basketball team. In season 7, Skills want to have a real job, and Julian gives him the idea of becoming a sports coordinator. He gets a job offer in Los Angeles and move there. He comes back to Tree Hill sometimes.

## Trivia

* Skills originally had Lucas Scott's old jersey number until he came back onto the team in the Tree Hill Ravens.
* Skills has appeared in 78 episodes during the nine seasons of *One Tree Hill*.
* Skills is one of only four main male character to appear in every season of *One Tree Hill*. The other main male characters are: Nathan Scott, Dan Scott and Marvin 'Mouth' McFadden. He is also one of only four characters to appear in both the pilot and the finale, the others being Nathan, Mouth, and Haley.