“Sam the Athlete” is a funny, heartwarming short story about a boy named Sam. He doesn’t have very much dialogue, but the author’s descriptions are enough to let the reader know what an ambitious, driven and considerate (and sometimes even awkward) character he is.

The story begins with Sam asking his mom for a pair of new sneakers. His old ones worked just fine, but he really wanted to fit in at his new middle school. After hearing this, his mom brought him to the store to find new shoes. He chose a pair, tried them on, and loved them. Despite this, he made sure they weren’t out of his mom’s price range. This demonstrates how kind and considerate he is.

Another notable quality of Sam’s is his awkwardness, which adds to the comedic aspect of the story. He really wanted to be an athlete, but with every sport he tried, things didn’t go his way. Most of the time, it was because he didn’t understand the game. He got really confused in soccer. A lot of the time, he ended up running the wrong way and slamming into the players going in the opposite direction. “He seems to be an angry boy” (pg 64) is what Mrs. Hayes told his mom at the parent-teacher night. Sam was pretty good at hockey, but it wasn’t quite the ideal sport for him. He found his sport when he saw a notice for his new school’s field hockey team. Seeing it opened a door for him. The quote “Field hockey!” from page 66 shows the reader just how excited he was about trying out for a team he might be able to play well on.

He always had doubts about becoming an athlete, but he got through it thanks to his motivation and driven personality. He joined the school field hockey team, and even after finding out that everyone else on it was a girl, his ambition pushed him to stay on the team as a “girl” (which might have been a little goofy on his part). At the end of the story, it helped his team win the game and even make Mark Portnoy (someone who bullied him throughout elementary school) envious. This quality also helped him come to the realization that maybe he didn’t have to change to suit to the game, and that it could change to suit him.