Londaryl Perry teaches his history class at Northeast Academy. PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN

This is the final post in a five-part blog series, continuing the life story of Northeast girls basketball coach Londaryl Perry, The Oklahoman’s Little All-City Coach of the Year.

Perry was profiled in Tuesday’s newspaper, but his life story is too fascinating to be held to one story. This blog post will focus on Perry’s military career. Here is the full blog schedule:

Tuesday: Perry’s basketball career

Wednesday: More on Perry’s mother and two brothers

Thursday: Perry’s first coaching job

Friday: Perry’s military career

Saturday: The state of Perry’s family today

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At age 34, Londaryl Perry received word that another uncle had died because of drugs.

His uncle James, who had no insurance and had been a drug addict for most of his life, didn’t have an overdose. The drugs just finally took a toll on his body.

“This particular uncle, even though he was on drugs, he was probably the happiest druggie and alcoholic you’d ever meet,” Perry said. “He was always happy and he was going to make you smile.”

Perry was in Iraq for the second time, this time as a civilian contractor, when his cousin told him about James’ death.

The family was scrambling around, trying to find a way to pay for funeral and burial costs. They had decided to cremate him and not have a funeral because they didn’t have enough money.

Perry told his cousin to get with a funeral service and tell him how much it costs. He offered to pay for everything, on the condition that a letter he wrote would be read at the funeral.

The family agreed, and Perry wrote a letter pleading for his family to change. Getting off drugs was part of it, but Perry also wanted his family to be closer.

Now that Perry is back in Oklahoma City, he makes sure they live up to it. Every family holiday is spent at Perry’s home, with around 40 people there each time — including Perry’s mother.

She claims to be clean, but no one is really sure whether to believe her or not. She lives with one of Perry’s younger brothers.

“She’s 53, but she’s 21 in her head,” said Jermey Perry, Londaryl’s youngest brother who is 25 now.

“She doesn’t like talking about (the past). She knows she did wrong.”

Londaryl describes his relationship with his mother as “cordial.”

“We have conversations,” he said. “We speak, but it’s just different (than a normal mother-son relationship).

“If she’s not on drugs, what did she do to get off them? I don’t know. Because the whole time I was raising my brothers, she was still on them.

“I don’t know what her motivation was or is to get off drugs. … It’s fortunate that she’s still alive because of how long she was on drugs.”

But still, Perry said there is no bitterness about how he was treated as a child. He still wants his family to be close, and that’s why he tries to get everyone together on holidays.

“We try to get our family together because our family is not close-knit,” Perry said. “We try to have those times where we come together and try to enjoy each other.”

Northeast girls coach Londaryl Perry went to Iraq twice. PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN

This is Part 4 in a five-part blog series, continuing the life story of Northeast girls basketball coach Londaryl Perry, The Oklahoman’s Little All-City Coach of the Year.

Perry was profiledled in Tuesday’s newspaper, but his life story is too fascinating to be held to one story. This blog post will focus on Perry’s military career. Here is the full blog schedule:

Tuesday: Perry’s basketball career

Wednesday: More on Perry’s mother and two brothers

Thursday: Perry’s first coaching job

Friday: Perry’s military career

Saturday: The state of Perry’s family today

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At age 28, Londaryl Perry joined the Army.

Perry had been an assistant coach at Putnam City West since he graduated from Central Oklahoma, but the student loan debt he was carrying became too much.

He was sent to Iraq in October 2003 — seven months after the war there began.

Perry was stationed at the Baghdad International Airport and worked with secure, encrypted telecommunications.

“We were getting bombed every. Single. Night,” Perry said of his time at the airport. “It became like clockwork; we’d get bombed somewhere around midnight, and then again between 5 and 6 in the morning.”

Fortunately, Perry didn’t lose any friends in Iraq.

After his tour in Iraq was completed, he stayed in the Army until 2007. Much of his time was spent playing for a military basketball team.

His last day in the Army was President’s Day in 2007. Almost immediately after that, he became a private military contractor, and returned to Iraq about seven months later.

“It was very different, being a civilian contractor vs. being a soldier,” Perry said. “Both experiences were very rewarding.”

As a contractor, Perry was responsible for putting Electronic countermeasures (ECMs) on vehicles, which send out radio pules and jam radio signals to stop insurgent’s bombs.

He said his job as a civilian contractor was “a little more rewarding,” because he knows he saved the lives of American military personnel. He worked more with the Marines and the Navy during his second trip to Iraq.

“We had a lot of instances where it was proven to have worked,” Perry said of the ECMs.

He spent a little over a year in Iraq the second time before he returned home to both reunite with his family and get back into coaching, which he missed.

Northeast coach Londaryl Perry's first coaching job was at Putnam City West under Mike Nunley. PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN

This is Part 3 in a five-part blog series, continuing the life story of Northeast girls basketball coach Londaryl Perry, The Oklahoman’s Little All-City Coach of the Year.

Perry was profiled in Tuesday’s newspaper, but his life story is too fascinating to be held to one story. This blog post will focus on his first coaching job, when he was an assistant boys coach at Putnam City West under Mike Nunley. Here is the full blog schedule:

Tuesday: Perry’s basketball career

Wednesday: More on Perry’s mother and two brothers

Thursday: Perry’s first coaching job

Friday: Perry’s military career

Saturday: The state of Perry’s family today

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At age 24, Londaryl Perry got his first coaching job.

He became a boys assistant coach under Mike Nunley at his alma mater, Putnam City West.

Nunley became another important friend and mentor for Perry.

“When I first spoke with Mike, I just had a feeling that this man is somebody special,” Perry said.

For his part, Nunley knew pretty quick that Perry was a natural coach.

“What he had was a passion for teaching kids the game of basketball,” said Nunley, now the athletic director for Edmond Public Schools.

Nunley remembers that kids were drawn to Perry, and just generally wanted to be around him. Perry still has that appeal to kids today at Northeast, where he regularly gets hugs as he walks through the school halls.

But what really impressed Nunley was Perry’s attitude.

“Early on, we had a parent meeting,” Nunley said. “Someone was unhappy.”

Nunley remembers Perry looking at him and putting his hand out, palm side up.

“Coach Nunley, most people are looking for a handout,” Perry told him before twisting his hand.

“I’m looking for a handshake.”

That outlook was especially impressive considering Perry’s difficult background.

“He had every right to not be a positive member of society,” Nunley said. “There was nothing. But he never used it as a crutch or an excuse.”

Perry said Nunley taught him patience, and also gave him the opportunity to learn how to be a coach.

“Sometimes, he would just walk out of practice and let me take over,” Perry said. “He would put me there to take control and get the feeling of being a coach.”

Nunley remains a mentor for Perry today. Early in this — his first — season with the Northeast girls, he called Nunley when he had trouble getting through to his team.

The girls weren’t responding to Perry’s aggressive approach; Nunley said Perry was so good at basketball, that he sometimes struggled to communicate with those who weren’t as talented.

“The game was so easy to him,” Nunley said. “He was Russell Westbrook before Russell Westbrook.”

But he also had to learn that girls sometimes need a different sort of leadership.

“I told him he needed to treat all of those girls as if they were his daughters,” Nunley said.

Once he started looking at it from that perspective, things improved.

“I can not talk to Mike for several months, and when I do it’s a great conversation,” Perry said. “He’s a great man and mentor.”

Northeast girls basketball coach Londaryl Perry. PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN

This is Part 2 of five-part blog series, continuing the life story of Northeast girls basketball coach Londaryl Perry, who I featured in Tuesday’s newspaper.

Today, I’ll focus more on Perry’s relationship with his mother and two brothers. Here is the full blog schedule:

Tuesday: Perry’s basketball career

Wednesday: More on Perry’s mother and two brothers

Thursday: Perry’s first coaching job

Friday: Perry’s military career

Saturday: The state of Perry’s family today

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At age 13, Londaryl Perry almost decided life was too much.

“Who gives a damn about me?” Perry thought as he briefly considered suicide.

“Who cares if I live or die?”
He watched his uncle die with his own eyes after a drug overdose. His father died after overdosing on heroin.

But the continuing nightmare was the home life with his mother, who regularly called him a “bastard” and “ugly.”

Yes, Londaryl Perry’s mother wasn’t just dismissive and unattentive. She displayed a genuine disdain for her oldest son.

Londaryl’s mother has claimed for years that she was raped as a 16-year old, which is how she became pregnant with him.

“She says she wasn’t sexually active (when he was conceived),” Londaryl said. “My mother has never changed that story after all these years, that he raped her.”

Because he shares some physical features with his father, Londaryl believes much of the anger his mother showered him with is because of the alleged rape.

“I feel like I was a reminder of him, and all that hatred was taken out on me,” Londaryl said. “To know you’re born out of that, and to be treated like that …

“I was like, ‘What do I do?’”

Even though his mother’s addiction resulted in her often neglecting his two younger brothers, they never got the insults that Londaryl did.

“For both of my little brothers, it was different,” Londaryl said. “She cherished them, and she resented me.”

Perry’s wife Shana, who he’s known since he was in the eighth grade and dated throughout high school, remembers coming home with Perry after a game one night.

There was a house full of addicts, getting high with Londaryl’s mother.

He kicked all of his mother’s friends out of the house, and the two began arguing.

Perry’s mother picked up his basketball, clutched it between her hands and said she was so upset that, “I wish I had a rock this big that I could smoke.”

“You think of home as being a safe place, and it wasn’t for him,” Shana Perry said.

Still, he made sure to come home every day to look after his brothers. After a two-year career at Seminole State junior college, he walked on to Central Oklahoma’s basketball team. A short while later, he decided he’d had enough of his mother’s treatment of his brothers.

No food in the house, a lack of clothing. It had to stop. Shana, now principal at Del Crest Middle School, and Londaryl had just gotten married and were both in college to become teachers.

Londaryl and Shana, now the principal at Del Crest Middle School in Del City, were both in school to become educators.

“The conversation we had was about how we are both wanting to be educators so we can make a difference in children’s lives,” said Shana Perry. “Here are his brothers that need someone to make a difference for them right now.”

The difference they made was substantial. Clifford, then 13-years old, and Jermey, then 10, suddenly lived with adults who cared about them. Who asked questions about what they were up to, and made sure they were fed and clothed.

“As kids, we would just leave for seven or eight hours at a time,” said Jermey Perry, now 25-years old. “She was more worried about her friends than us.”

Both of Londaryl’s brothers are now married with careers and children.

Jermey Perry admits he’d “probably be in jail” without Londaryl and Shana taking custody.

After Londaryl Perry graduated from UCO in 1998, he took a job as an assistant coach at Putnam City West under Mike Nunley, who is now the athletic director for Edmond Public Schools.

Nunley thinks Londaryl Perry did more for Clifford and Jermey than keep them out of jail.

“He didn’t save them from a life of crime,” Nunley said, “He saved them from death.”

Nunley remembers things being very difficult for Londaryl as he tried to be both a parent and a brother to the two kids.

“It was super challenging,” Nunley said. “One of his brothers played for us, and that was really hard on Londaryl. He had huge expectations for him; he wanted his brother to experience the success that he did.

“He wore every single hat. He was his big brother, his coach and his father figure.”

Northeast girls basketball coach Londaryl Perry during the Class 2A state tournament. PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN

I wrote a story for Tuesday’s newspaper about Northeast girls basketball coach Londaryl Perry, who was raised in a home with a drug-addicted mother and his two younger brothers. When Perry was 21-years old, he took his mother to court and was given custody of his two brothers. Both of them now have careers, wives and children.

Perry’s childhood was extremely difficult, and his life story goes well beyond what was in Tuesday’s newspaper article. I decided to continue Londaryl Perry’s story in a five-part blog series. I’ll release a new blog each day focusing on a different aspect of Perry’s fascinating, often chilling, life story.

Today, I’ll write about his basketball career and how hoops, in many ways, saved his life. Here is the list of the blogs I’ll release each day:

Tuesday: Perry’s basketball career

Wednesday: More on Perry’s mother and two brothers

Thursday: Perry’s first coaching job

Friday: Perry’s military career

Saturday: The state of Perry’s family today

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At age 8, Londaryl Perry was introduced to basketball.

His family bounced around Oklahoma City from apartment to apartment, and in the summer before his third-grade year, he was playing with some kids at a park.

One other boy asked Londaryl to play on his summer league team, the Colts.

“We would just go out there and play, and I just kept playing,” Londaryl said.

He had natural talent and loved the game, but basketball was also a welcome distraction from a miserable home life with a mother who not only ignored her oldest son, but showed genuine disdain toward him.

She made fun of him in front of her friends, mocking the clothes he wore and calling him awful names.

The one family member Londaryl remembers really showing him affection and love was his uncle Jerome, who also lived in Oklahoma City and now lives in Denton, Texas.

“I remember him coming to me one day, telling me how he didn’t think his mom loved him because she was doing drugs and she was never there for him,” Jerome Perry said.

“Like a lot of little kids, he always wanted to make his mom proud. But she never took out time for him.”

She didn’t even take out time to watch him play basketball. In a hoops career that lasted through four years of college, Londaryl’s mother saw him play exactly twice, and she had to be dragged there both times by other parents.

“Even when he was a little boy, he was a great basketball player,” Jerome Perry said.

“I used to always try to tell his mom, ‘You need to go see him; your son is great out there,’ but she was too busy worrying about getting high and doing drugs.”

Perry didn’t realize a college basketball career was possible until he was 16 and a junior at Putnam City West.

One day, PC West coach Dick Balenseifen walked down the hall with Perry and handed him a letter from a junior college in Kansas.

“What is this for?” Perry asked his coach.

“This is the middle of my junior year, and I had no idea I could go to college and play basketball,” Perry said. “I never even thought I could.”

Through that point in high school, Perry’s grades were bad. He was never ineligible during basketball season, but made C’s, D’s and F’s otherwise.

“I was ignorant to everything,” Perry said. “My environment that I grew up in was totally different than those other kids around me.”

From that point on, though, Perry’s grades improved dramatically while he continued to shine on the hardwood.

Perry played AAU ball between his junior and senior year. His team, the Oklahoma Trotters, went to AAU nationals at Wake Forest and did well, making it to the top 10.

He was playing in the same tournament as guys like Allen Iverson, Joe Smith, Jeff Capel and Jerry Stackhouse.

After one game, Perry was surrounded at his locker by college recruiters, who began asking him questions. But when they asked about his grades, Perry became defensive and told them to leave him alone.

“I told them they were wasting their time, because I don’t have the grades to go to college,” Perry said. “I had this high moment, being surrounded like that, and then I hit a low.”

As a senior, Perry averaged 20.5 points per game and earned a spot on The Oklahoman’s Big All-City team. But still, his early grade issues likely cost him an opportunity to play Division I basketball.

He went to Seminole State College, where he played for two seasons.

Between his freshman and sophomore seasons, he came home to Oklahoma City and worked every day at a tree service.

He would work from early in the morning until 5 p.m. each day, and then take college courses in the evenings.

“By doing that, I had no basketball in the summer and I gained weight,” Perry said. “Because of that, a lot of my options went away.”

Perry remembers one Division I coach coming to Seminole and saying that, because he had gained weight, it didn’t look like he cared about basketball.

According to Perry, word spread from that point and his options for big-time hoops after junior college became very limited.

So he walked on at Central Oklahoma, where he eventually earned a scholarship. He graduated from UCO in 1998.

“When I look back on it, it was a blessing,” Perry said, because he was able to take custody of his brothers and help raise them.

A few years later, when he was in the Army, Perry joined a military basketball team. He got to travel all over Europe playing basketball. In 2006 his team, the Wiesbaden Eagles, won the Army-Europe community-level basketball tournament. Here is a Stars and Stripes story on the championship game victory, during which Perry scored 31 points. There is also a photo of him playing with the article.

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Finally, when I Googled “Londaryl Perry,” I came across this highlight video on YouTube that his son posted. The video shows highlights of Perry playing basketball in high school and college, so enjoy.