Columbus teen is national Youth Athlete of the Year finalist despite 3 brain surgeries
A Columbus teen’s inspiring story of perseverance raised more than $50,000 for charity as votes from his supporters boosted him into the final round of a national contest.
Xavier Davies, a Northside High School sophomore who plays basketball despite having epilepsy and going through three brain surgeries, finished in fifth place out of approximately 300,000 nominees in the three-month-long Youth Athlete of the Year competition sponsored by 3Brand, his father, Orson Davies, told the Ledger-Enquirer.
The money voters for Xavier donated is part of the $21.66 million by the contest, to be split equally between the V Foundation for cancer research and the Why Not You Foundation for underprivileged youth.
As a freshman guard last season, Xavier (5-foot-8, 165 pounds) averaged 13.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.1 steals and 0.2 blocks per game, according to MaxPreps, which ranked him 19th in the state for points per 32 minutes at 21.0.
Xavier was selected as his team’s Most Valuable Player and first-team All-Region 3-AAAA. He also plays soccer and runs track. And he performs well in academics with a 3.3 grade-point average.
“Basically,” Xavier told the L-E, “it’s being able to persevere in hard work.”
Orson said he nominated his son because “we teach him that life is bigger than basketball. We teach him life is about your character and not about what you do on the court but what you do off the court.”
Xavier’s life off the court makes what he has done on the court even more impressive.
“He is defying all odds that medical professionals have placed upon him,” his father said.
Diagnosis and prognosis
Xavier, 16, was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 4 years old after having multiple seizures while sleeping and while awake.
Treatment for his first seizure involved being flown to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where his family learned he had a dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor, also known as a DNET, on the right frontal lobe in his brain.
After the tumor was removed, doctors told the family Xavier no longer was able to be left alone and wasn’t able to do normal childhood activities, such as ride a bike, swim and play video games, his father said.
“This changed our family’s life forever,” Orson said. “… This diagnosis and prognosis rocked our family as a whole, but Xavier showed so much resilience. He was so young and didn’t really understand what was going on.”
At the age of 4, 8 and 10, Xavier underwent a craniotomy, an operation that removes part of the skull to reach the brain. Each time, he spent one or two weeks in a hospital to recover.
“He showed how resilient he was because, all three surgeries, the doctors said that the recovery time would be longer than the time we were there,” Orson said.
‘Regular kid’
Orson is proud of Xavier for persevering to be as much of a “regular kid” as possible.
“He never has used his epilepsy as a crutch in life,” Orson said. “He has always just tried his best, even when he did not get the results that he wanted.”
Whether it was still insisting on playing outside after having a seizure or refusing to be checked out of school after another episode, Xavier was intent on not letting his condition keep him down.
“He would go to the (school) nurse’s office and sleep it off and be right back in class an hour later,” Orson said. “Xavier never stopped going.”
Other than having to wear headgear for protection during games and not being allowed to play football because of his condition, Xavier indeed feels like a regular kid, he said.
“I work so hard in practice, then I play hard inside the games, ... because the world gave me another chance to be able to play sports again,” he said.
Green light
Midway through the team’s first game of last season, Northside boys basketball head coach Greg Johnson saw the positive impact Xavier made on his fellow Patriots when he came off the bench — and he has been a starter ever since.
“He was making plays and knocking down shots,” Johnson told the L-E. “I just had to leave him out there.”
“I just love the excitement of the game and playing for the big crowds, the big-moment shots,” Xavier said.
Xavier also likes the confidence his coach has placed in him— a “green light,” he called it —-- to lead the team on the court.
“If my teammates aren’t doing what they need to do,” he said, “I’m able to clean up what they’re not doing.”
Johnson said he sensed from the first time meeting Xavier that he would be a good leader.
“Playing hard, showing the rest of the kids how hard you have to play to make it at this level,” Johnson said. “To be a ninth-grader doing that, it was kind of special.”
Johnson called Xavier “one of the best ball handlers I’ve seen in the high school game,” but he also is impressed with the way he handles himself.
“The kids respect him,” Johnson said. “He was in the ninth grade, but he was still a leader on our team, and that’s kind of hard to find nowadays, when the older guys listen to the younger guy. That just shows you how talented he really is.”
Just ask Northside senior forward Nasir Fowler. He described Xavier as “an energetic player. He plays hard, and he’s just a leader for our team.”
Nasir appreciates Xavier constructively criticizing his teammates in kind ways.
“If they aren’t doing the right thing,” Nasir said, “he’ll correct them by showing what they need to do.”
Overcoming hardship
Johnson sees Xavier as a role model motivating his teammates.
“He makes them open up their eyes to what they’re doing,” Johnson said, “because any moment could be like a different situation for you. … He just shows you to make every day your best every time you come out.”
Nasir recalled the first time he watched Xavier play basketball while wearing his headgear when they were at Aaron Cohn Middle School.
“Most people who go through stuff like that, they don’t really want to play or they can’t play,” Nasir said. “So it’s cool that you see him go out here and play as hard as he does.”
And now that they are teammates at Northside, Nasir figures, “I don’t have any excuse to not play hard if he’s playing hard.”
Orson considers his son’s journey as an example for anyone who wants to overcome a hardship.
“When things get tough, a person must first face their adversity head on, no matter how bad it seems,” Orson said. “… No matter how bad your situation may be, there is always someone, somewhere going through something much more than your situation. … Keep your faith in the Lord and never give up, because with no struggle there can be no progress.”
Xavier said his advice for others facing tough circumstances is to “just stay close to God, and pray about it, and then believe in yourself.”
This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
