William Solomon’s greatest love—so far, after all, he is only 15—is football. And boy, is he good at it. The sophomore at Xavier High School near Union Square was recently nominated by the New York Post as New York City’s top high school running back.

Solomon was part of his high school’s undefeated junior varsity football team in 2010. Recently, he helped his team clinch the regular-season division championship, earning three touchdowns and a two-point conversion in a single game.

According to his coach, Chris Stevens, it is not typical to see a player as young as Solomon performing at that level on the football field and playing in both defensive and offensive positions with equal success. Stevens explained, “His ability to come through on both sides [defensive and offensive] of the game as a sophomore, long before we expected him to, is a testament to his versatility and maturity as a player.”

Although Solomon has been a football prodigy since grade school, he isn’t your typical sports-focused jock. “I’m not just here for football. Xavier didn’t choose me just for that, but because I work hard in the classroom,” he said.

In fact, despite a rigorous six-days-a-week practice schedule, Solomon boasts an impressive 90-plus average in almost all of his classes. He coyly admitted, “Latin is my toughest subject. It’s the class that I struggle to maintain an average in the 80s.”

William hopes his dedication to football will not only pave the way to a career in sports but to a college education. “I play football to be the best,” he said. “I’d like to play in the pros, but football is not all I have. As my mom says, it’s not just about football. It’s about academics, and football is just a way to get there.”

Unlike his peers, Xavier High School sophomore Demetri Sofides doesn’t just play video games on his computer—he designs award-winning versions of them.

In 2010, Sofides was one of 13 winners from around the world of “The Game Changers,” a digital media and learning competition co-sponsored by video game publisher Electronic Arts and the MacArthur Foundation. Sofides’ winning entry was a new level he developed for Electronic Arts’ game, Spor. “The game has this feature where you are able to create creatures and buildings, so I used it to create a ghost story called The Lantern Bearer,” he explained.

Sofides’ prize was a trip to Electronic Arts’ studios in Redwood City, Calif. For Sofides, who has been designing games for as long as he has been able to type, it was a dream come true. “It was pretty cool. I still keep in touch with one of their lead designers,” he said.

Sofides’ first love, however, is board games. He admits to still having a desk drawer filled with art and concepts for games yet to be created. At a certain point, however, he decided to retire Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit and try his hand at designing video games. His interest in art and writing is also an asset in developing his work, which often has pleasing aesthetics and engrossing storylines.

With his end goal of becoming a professional game designer, Sofides explains that he follows the advice outlined in Malcolm Gladwell’s New York Times bestseller, Outliers. “People who reach the top of their fields, according to this book, accumulate 10,000 hours of practice. I’m working to get in my 10,000 hours of practice in game design.”