9-year-old walk-on is inspiration for Lincoln football

It's probably hard for some to comprehend how Xavier Oliver is able to smile.

The 9-year-old's mother, Tamara Oliver, has been hospitalized since August due to a bout with diabetes. Her left leg was amputated below the knee.

His father, Darrell Oliver, was killed in a single-car accident while pulling out of a gas station, three days after his mother was rushed to the hospital.

But on Saturday afternoons, Xavier escaped his sad reality and donned a huge smile while patrolling the Lincoln University football team's sideline.

Beyond being the Lions' water boy, Oliver was the team's honorary captain. The fourth-grader at McCall Elementary School, near Seventh and Pine Streets in Philadelphia, was and still is an inspiration.

"He'll see somebody with their head down and he'll say, 'Get your head up,' " Lincoln coach O.J. Abanishe said. "His spirits are always up.

"Everybody loves him."

So much so that Abanishe said Oliver is still associated with the team, even though the season concluded Saturday. That's when St. Paul's defeated Lincoln, 16-6, in a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association game in South Hill, Va. The Lions (3-7, 1-6 CIAA) ended the season with a five-game losing streak.

After a 48-year stretch without a team, Lincoln was in its second season of playing football. And the players will tell you that Oliver provided a lot of their motivation.

"Just seeing him out there with those little water bottles, it's just a powerful environment when I see the little dude," junior defensive back Jairon Bailey said. "He is always smiling, regardless of what he went through. When he comes here, it seems like he's just at peace."

For Oliver, who didn't travel to away games, the experience allowed him to become a normal child.

Shortly after his first birthday, he began dealing with things that would weigh on the average adult.

That year, Tamara, a 1987 Lincoln graduate, overcame a heart attack. Five years later, she suffered the first of two strokes. The first one temporarily impaired her speech. Tamara has had diabetes for many years. The disease runs in her family.

Always at his mother's side, Oliver would make sure she took her medicine. He also helped her around the house. When he wasn't with his mom, Oliver played flag football and was the first baseman on the team his father coached.

And during morning car rides to school, Darrell, an environmental engineer, and Xavier would discuss their shared love for science.

"My favorite subjects are social studies and science, because my dad used to work with science," said Oliver, a straight-A student.

The Olivers' routine changed in August.

That's when Tamara experienced sharp pain in her left leg. She initially shrugged it off as something minor. But Darrell took action after seeing his wife in pain for a few days.

On Aug. 18, he sped her to Lankenau Hospital, where doctors removed two blood clots in the leg. Shortly afterward, Tamara, who was recently moved to a rehabilitation center, had her lower leg amputated due to infection.

But before that happened, Darrell died in a car accident in the wee hours of Aug. 21.

"He was coming from his mother's house," said Lisa Andrews, who is Xavier's godmother and caretaker until Tamara gets healthier. "He left the gas station around 4 o'clock. He made a right and where we thought it would be a brake, it was an acceleration. They think it may have possibly been a fatal heart attack."

After losing control of the car, he crashed into a building.

Since then, Oliver has lived with Andrews, a close friend of Tamara's since they were toddlers. The two went to Lincoln University together.

"In the nine years since I've known this young man, I watched this baby go through a lot of situations," Andrews said of Oliver. "He's stayed extremely strong, extremely motivated. He does see the cup is always half full. And even though he might not get that total concept, he understands it, because he lives it."

Looking for an outlet for Oliver, Andrews contacted Lincoln assistant coach Elliott Lightfoot regarding a possible position with the team. Lightfoot, a 1989 Lincoln graduate, knew Andrews and Tamara Oliver from college.

A day later, Lightfoot informed Andrews that Abanishe would be honored to have Oliver associated with the program.

The day after Darrell's funeral, Xavier was on the sideline for Lincoln's season-opening 41-20 victory over Cheyney.

"I have a lot of fun, because I can watch" up close, he said of being a water boy. "I see what they are talking about and the plays. And when I play football, I try to do what they did."

An extension of the coaching staff, Oliver wasn't afraid to address players who committed penalties. And he made sure that everyone on the sideline wasn't standing too close to the field.

"One time he even told me that I needed to get back," said Chris Weeden, Lincoln's director of sports information and marketing.

But he let Weeden off easy. Bailey wasn't as lucky.

Oliver once yelled, "Keep your head" to the defensive back after Bailey received a penalty. Another time, Oliver approached Bailey on the sideline after he was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

"He says, 'Unsportsmanlike conduct, Jairon!' " Bailey recalled. "I'm like 'Oh, boy.' I wanted to say something back. But I was like, 'Uh.' It was nothing I could say.

"I have nothing but love for the young man."

Keeping Bailey under control is far from Oliver's ultimate goal.

His mother is scheduled to be fitted for her prosthesis shortly. He hopes that she'll return home soon.

"I'm going to remind her to take her medicine before she goes to sleep and eat before she takes her medicine," Oliver said. "I'm going to tell her some exercises and ask her to do them before she goes to sleep."

Now that his father is gone, he's prepared to become man of the house.

"And," Oliver said, "I'm going to make my dad proud by listening to my mom."

Find more photos from this story at http://go.philly.com/xavierEndText