Qualified: Sam 'BamBamBolt' New Balance Indoor Nationals 2025
- OhSo Strib'ble
- Mar 31
- 10 min read
Updated: Mar 31
Our son Sam' BamBamBolt' Stribling, Jr. is a pretty amazing kid. I mean you know kids will be kids and most certainly find moments to irk your nerves without a doubt. But with Sam I would say the pros by far outweigh the cons in his mischief so he receives a lot of appreciation from me. Sam has 2 parents and a long line of athletic ancestors, going back several generations who created such a gifted and talented individual we get to witness shine. We knew we had something special in a kid when he broke my laptop keys at 9 months old where the name "BamBam" was properly credited.
The Beginning
Every milestone from birth has been fast for him. Sam would roll over from his stomach to back so quickly during tummy time that the movement would shock him. All you could do was laugh because his facial expression was so funny. From the time he figured out how to feed himself, it's been a race. Crawling was a race as was walking. His first sentences were so jumbled together you can barely understand what he was saying. Alot of times we truly had no clue honestly. Knowing the Sam most of you know now you would have never thought he did not want to be on the football field. He was about 3 years old when we began taking him to football lessons with Parks and Planning. Every practice, he would hold onto my leg and not go out to play on the field with the coach and other children. I didn't force him to go because I didn't want it to be traumatic so we would just show up every Saturday hoping he would join the kids and coach.
One Saturday we arrived at practice, and he went out the van fully charging to mid field where they were huddled up. I was like yes, in my mind thinking ok he is going to participate today. That thought ended as soon as I saw him reach mid field and turn right back around full speed running to me. Again, all I could do is laugh. But that didn't stop his love for speed, he was always running versus walking around the house and outside. When we would take walks while his older sister had soccer practice, he would race the cars along the sidewalk as they drove down the street. Once those arms went back you knew it was take off time. All this before 5 years old. Sam eventually enjoyed those Saturday practices after we got him into basketball lessons. When his first year of tackle football began, he was ready. After completing his first season playing football, we could see he had a natural talent for speed but needed to work on his form, balance and train to get faster, so we decided to give track a try.
The Now...
Today we have a 13-year-old 12+ times All American, currently US#1 200m, 400m and US#3 60M 2025 AAU Indoor Nationals Champion. Before working hard to achieve this status from the AAU Nationals, we knew that we would be making a quick turnaround to attend his first New Balance Nationals Track Meet. New Balance Indoor Nationals is held at The Track at New Balance in Boston Massachusetts. This is HUGE! This is where known local athletes go and break records amongst others. Sam said he was ready to go this year, his times qualified him to attend as a 6th grader last year as well. Knowing this would be an additional and unplanned expense for our family, we reached out to the community for their support to get us to Boston. Sam and us as a family mentally, emotionally and physically prepared ourselves for the journey ahead.
It's Thursday morning and time to wake Sam up to take his first non Metro Transit train ride and our first train ride to Boston. We chose train over flight due to the inconsistencies, comfort and price, even though the price wasn't that much different. His coach would be traveling with us, so we agree to meet at his home at 3:45am to make our 4:54am trip. I check on Sam to see if he wanted to do the interview now on our way to the coach's house and he said he wanted to wait until after Nationals. After a 25 minutes ride we arrived at Union Station. It's the wee hours in the morning so not much was going on and all the businesses were still closed. As with any track meet, we had breakfast, lunch and snacks packed to last us the day and of course, water and body armor as well! Sam felt it was too early in the morning to eat and was ready to doze off as soon as we got settled into our seats.
Trying to find his comfort spot he did ask if the lights would remain on for the ride, I responded I'm pretty sure they will, just put the blanket over your head. That didn't last long as I would feel him cozy up on my shoulder and be fast asleep. As the sun began to rise Sam woke up and was ready to eat. Life cereal dry is his before track meet breakfast for years now, so he munched away as he checked what state we were in. We had reached New Jersey after 3 hours and still had 3 more hours of travel time. Leaving out of Union Station we traveled through Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania thus far. I ate my muffin and took a couple bathroom breaks in between being sleep and awake. The New York stop was busy and a bit longer than the other stops. We napped a bit more before arriving to Rhode Island. I had glimpses of movies from back in the day seeing all the graffiti tags during our ride.
Finally made it to Boston but we had 2 more stops until we reached the South Boston station. Time check its 12:50pm and I am trying to contact the hotel to change our arrival time from 2pm to 1pm. With much gratitude we were allowed an early check-in so we can get settled and rest a little before heading out to the track. The plan was to ride to the track with our coaches after they ate lunch, but Sam was ready to go after about 30 minutes in the hotel. I ordered us an uber and we were on our way.
The New Balance area was massive, it covered a good 2 to 3 blocks as our driver was a bit confused as to where to drop us off. He drove down 2 more blocks till we arrived at 91 Guest Street. We saw the tent for check in, got out the car and it was extremely windy and cooler than planned. I have no idea what I was thinking by not packing us coats to wear while in Boston. Sam had on his track uniform and sweats, and I had on a hoodie with leggings. That chilly wind was felt for real! We got Sam checked in and I was also able to check in at the same tent to retrieve my press pass for Thursday only. I applied for this pass because I was eager to write about this experience. It's is literally what you are reading right now. The media team stated that I couldn't get a floor band due to them receiving an overwhelming amount of request for media this year. I was good with the free entry and the access I had to take photos of the arena and Sam as he warmed up and performed.
New Balance Nationals, as most track nationals, awards the athletes with a national's bag. Yall this bag is Fire!!!! I was a bit envious cause I wanted one for myself. Every direction you look you see the athletes walking around with their newly acquired New Balance Bags. We snapped a few photos and made our way into The Track at New Balance. Sam was so excited, he kept saying, "I smell track, I smell track"! Comparing our home track and the track in Virginia Beach he said Maryland needs to step their game up. How come I don't smell track when I walk inside the Sports and Learning Complex he wondered aloud. Before reaching inside where the actual track was, Sam already gave a few daps and said what's up to familiar faces. I recorded his walk into the stadium so he can relive the moment of him arriving at his 1st New Balance Nationals Track Meet.
The Track at New Balance is top tier! 3 levels above ground sits a huge arena, with large TV screens on both ends of the track, stadium seats on both sides and a narrow warm up area. We made our way through trying to find seats, enough to fit us, the coaches and another athlete from 301 Panthers. It was difficult but we finally got some seats at the far end. It's about 2 hours before race time and he was already in his regular focused but chill mode. I ask a lot of questions to be sure he is ok and has what he needs. Sam was excited to run but wondering why he was set to run in heat 5 out of 15 heats. As a former athlete I try to imagine the challenge in running against yourself. When you don't have anyone as fast as you in your heat you are basically running against your own time. I ponder how do you determine if you are going faster? It's racing against the time your just conquered for a better time. Does that sound difficult? What does is feel like to be fast like lightening? The questions that go through my mind never end honestly. I keep most of them to myself as I don't want to create additional pressure.
Sam was ready to begin warmups just as the coaches arrived. I missed out of great warmup photos because I was sitting at our spot to watch these 2 bags. Yes, I chuckled as I typed that. But it is true I didn't want sticky fingers to find their way to 2 bags sitting unattended, so I stayed in the bleachers. After about an hour Coach Will came to grab the runners' spikes so that let me know it's almost time for Sam to hit that track. Almost time could be 15 minutes to an hour real talk. But this meet was moving so before I knew it the 1st heat was beginning. Sam's pr was a 54.10 so I have no idea why he was in a heat with 56 and 57.
As I see Sam in line at the bull pen I began snapping photos. I didn't stop until he was done his race and walking towards the exit. I cheered him on as I snapped motion after motion the duration of the race. 400m indoors is 2 times around the track versus outdoors it is only one time around. I am usually recording his races but since New Balance Nationals was being broadcasted live, I can leave the recording alone and focus on action flicks. The audience near me heard me cheering Sam on and they decided to join me. All I could hear in-between my screams were Go Sam, Let's Go Sam!
I was so happy for him, seeing him continue to live out his dreams. Sam came in 1st place for his heat, but he wasn't thrilled about his time. He crossed the line with a 54.31 and held the fastest time up until heat 8. Out of 79 middle schoolers, he came in 23rd place overall, 4th overall for 7th graders coming after Gunner Hammet 52.70, Elijah Osbourne Jr. 53.46, Pierre Love 54.21, 12 total 7th graders and 2 total 6th graders, the remaining 65 were 8th graders.
Coming up the bleachers Sam was a little winded but also a little frustrated. I told him it's ok this was your first appearance; you will be back. We stayed to cheer on his friends for the remaining heats and to watch his teammate Kayla compete in the girls middle school 400 class. Kayla won her heat with a time of 59.65 and placed 14th overall, 9th overall for 8th graders. We watched a few more races then were ready to go and find something to fill our bellies. The coaches needed coffee so we went into this cute spot aross the street, the kids got hot cocoa, one coach got an espresso shot and the other a coffee. I just wanted food so no cocoa for me and I don't drink coffee so that was a no as well.
We found ourselves patronizing a Black Owned Restaurant called The Pearl for dinner. We got some down time as we waited to be seated. It super quaint, the atmosphere is a chill and cozy vibe, and the food was absolutely delicious. Well done for our first time eating at a Boston restaurant! Sam devoured some mussels, home cut fries and hot wings, I opted for the crispy skin salmon. YUMMY!!!! We headed back to the hotel to catch some zzzzzzz's for another early wakeup to catch the train back home. We would have loved to have had time to explore more but that means spending more money we didn't' have to spend.
It's 4:30am on Friday and time to wake up my son and get this uber to get to the train station on time. The ride to the train station was much quicker than our ride to the hotel. Most of Boston was still asleep as we made our way into the station, but 1st more photos.
Coming home seemed to be more relaxed as the most important portion of the trip has been achieved. Well minus the rude group that didn't adhere to noise levels and our sleep was constantly interrupted. But we managed to get some sleep on the way back. I am just beyond proud of our son participated in his very 1st Nationals Track meet aside AAU in another state other than Virginia. He competed with the best of the best across the nation from 6th to 8th grade. I asked him how he felt about the trip. He said, "It was good, and I will be back." I asked him does this make him want to compete in more National meets aside the usual and he responded, "YES!" My son isn't big on a lot a words so I knew that this conversation ended after he answered my last question.
Thank you New Balance Nationals for providing the opportunity for athletes to test their talents with the best of the best. And thank you for allowing me access as a journalist. Thank you, supporters, for your donations and prayers! We are proud parents of all our children and we do our best to allow them all to follow their dreams. Thank you to my husband because he is simply amazing and has truly been dedicated to helping our kids be their best.
This is one of our sons,
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