In the story “Sam The Athlete” by Stuart Mclean, Sam, the protagonist, goes through a tough time trying to find a place where he fits in with others.

Even though Sam tries his best to play sports with others, he can never seem to find what he can do best, however, he stays dedicated in trying everything. Sam can be a little clumsy with sports, and at times runs into people, making the teachers say that he “Seems to be an angry boy.”

Before he had to start middle school, he was worried that he wouldn’t have nice shoes like everyone else did, and so he wanted to get a pair. When he was looking at them, the worker told him they were “Built for speed” to which he responded with “I know, I can feel it.” After he got them, he tested them out, and accidentally ran directly into a pole, and realized the pair of shoes wouldn’t help him with sports.

He decided to try out for field hockey as a goalie. After the first practice, he did good, and the instructor told him so, making him feel a lot of satisfaction, although, all of the other students there were female, and he believed that it was a female hockey team, so he decided to try and pretend that he also was one.

At the end of the story, Sam managed to block the ball from going in the net, and everyone cheered for him, making him feel very confident in what he was doing. He saw his old bully, Mark, who look envious of him, which made Sam even more confident in himself.