His sports: Team manager in football, basketball and baseball. Sam is a
sophomore at Northwest Cabarrus High School. As a freshman, he worked as a
varsity football manager, scorekeeper for the junior varsity boys basketball
team and statistician for the varsity baseball team. As a sophomore, Sam was
manager for the varsity girls basketball team and again was varsity football
manager.

Age: 15.

Family: Sam lives with his parents, Sam and Shelia Mullis, and brother,
Shawn, and sister, Sarah, in Concord.

How he got started as a team manager: ``Things didn`t work out when I tried
out at defensive back for the football team. But I wanted to get involved in
sports. I ended up asking the coach if he needed anybody to help out on the
team. He did, and I started to work. Then some of the coaches asked me if I
could help out in other sports.``

Duties as manager: ``In football, I help repair equipment, keep time in
practice, take care of equipment, get the field ready on game night and other things. In basketball, I sweep the court, keep statistics and help keep time. In baseball, I would help film games and keep statistics.``

Most unusual moment: ``It was during the varsity girls basketball season. We
were playing at Kannapolis. The girls had left the locker room for the second half, and the coaches and I were still there. We tried to leave, but the door was locked. We pounded and pounded, but no one heard us. We were down there
about six or seven minutes before someone heard us. By then we had missed
about two minutes of the second half. The game had gone on without us.``

Other activities: Sports editor of the school newspaper, Sam is a tutor and
member of the math and Beta clubs. He received the Beta Cup, given to the
sophomore with the highest academic average; his average was 98.7. He is a
semifinalist for admission to the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics.

The future: He would like to study computer programming at Duke University.

Know someone who is a Good Sport? Write to us: Cabarrus Neighbors, 651 Church St. N., Concord, N.C. 28025. Or call us at 786-2185 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.Edition:  FOUR
Section:  CABARRUS NEIGHBORS
Page:  22