Sophomore Sam Burns sits in the South Lobby, listening to Al Michaels scrutinizing every move of the Jacksonville Jaguars, his favorite team. Burns observes every single pass, down and play, imagining recreating those very moves playing with his friends. Burns’s favorite pastimes are football and track, and they’re always on his mind.

“Football is the greatest game ever made. No matter what body type you have, you can play, and you can be good at it because people don’t realize that the biggest thing in football is effort,” Burns said.

This season, Burns was a quarterback for Niles West’s JV team.

“He’s pretty good. He’s competitive, and he’s a leader,” sophomore AJ Mikos said. Mikos played football with Burns on JV this year.

Burns’s attitude isn’t only applied to sports alone – he dedicates the same mentality to be a good friend as well.

“Sam is a hardworking and driven individual. He’s one of those guys that will just put their head down and just grind,” sophomore AJ Herrera said.

“He’s one of the most determined guys I know. When he wants something done, he does it,” sophomore Evi Hatzopoulos said.,

Besides playing football, Burns loves to spend quality time with his friends.

“I like to play football with my friends and usually be active, or go out to eat. I usually play sports like basketball and football, but sometimes we will play video games,” Burns said.

Before attending Niles West, Burns lived in Edgebrook, right outside of Niles. He attended Wildwood IB World Magnet School through eighth grade and then moved into Skokie. Burns has many great memories of CPS but also enjoys the shift he made to a suburban school.

“Niles West has a lot of stuff that CPS schools don’t have, like the nice field house gym. The school is a lot cleaner than a lot of CPS schools,” Burns said. “From an education standpoint, there was no rough transition because they are relatively even.”

Burns had no trouble entering Niles West. He began to make friends right away, and even knew a few people from old friends.

“At Wildwood, they had a football team that was open to kids outside of Chicago. There I met AJ Mikos, John Hakos, Caleb Singleton, and Spiro Kastrinakis. They were the ones to convince me to come to West,” Burns said. “I looked into the school and saw that it was a good school. We looked into the reviews and stats, plus my brother was already friends with a bunch of people here, so we decided to make the move.”

Burns is a great example of a good friend, athlete, and student. Make sure to watch him hurdle in this year’s track season.