When it comes to getting Xavier Sandoval to open up, he seems like a riddle wrapped inside of an enigma.

“I’m more of a quiet kid,” he said. “I don’t talk too much. I’m just quiet because I don’t want to talk.”

You would think his reluctance to talk was due to the discomfort of having a feature article written about him, but he’s pretty quiet all around. One of his friends said, “Xavier is mysterious, but funny.”

Even his mother, Renee, said, “He’s like that at home, too.”

But the one place where X—as he is known to his friends—does his talking is on the field.

That talking started when he was five years old. To hear X tell it, from the time he started to walk, he had a football in his hand. His dad, Eddie, would play ball with X and his brothers in the backyard, the front yard, the local parks.

“Me and my dad, we used to go on the big field and he just used to throw footballs to me,” X said. “He’d said that ‘You’d be like 50 yards away’ and I’d catch ‘em, like at five-years-old. I was just doing crazy stuff like that.”

That success as a little guy, had X begging his parents to let him play league football. At first, his mom was hesitant because of the injury risks, but she came around when she saw how much X loved the game. And his dad tried everything he could to get X on a team.

The only problem was that X was too young. While kids can play flag football as young as five, they have to wait until seven or eight before they can tackle. And X wanted to tackle.

So, he stuck to the backyard and played with his brothers until he was old enough for the leagues. He got more than enough experience fighting with his older brothers, too. “That’s what kind of shaped me into a football player,” X said, following that up with an emphatic “Hell no” when asked if they took it easy on him.

“My whole life I’ve always played against older kids,” X said.

Once he joined the Colton Micro Yellowjackets, X proved himself as tough from the start. During his first practice, he went up against the coach’s older son in a tackle exercise and held his own. Getting a taste of that success against other kids made him realize that he was different.

Now, X looks back on his experiences with pride. He is most proud of helping lead this year’s football team to the second round of the CIF playoffs, especially after that come-from-behind victory over Cerritos High. And he is proud of the off-season work he did during the pandemic with his teammates to stay in shape and ready for when they were allowed to take the field again.

But it’s the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes him smile. The jokes and pranks in the weight room when the coaches were out. The rap battles and boxing matches and messing around. The brotherhood.

Now Xavier looks forward to his future. A future with his girlfriend, Jazmine Retamal, whom he’s been dating since 7th grade. A future playing college football.

And now, hopefully, a future as Colton High’s next Prom King.

“I should be Prom King because when I was little I always thought it would be so cool,” he says. “Also me and my girlfriend have been together since seventh grade and it would be a good experience to share with each other.”

And with that, X has said everything he needs to say.