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

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.