In "How to Transform," what kind of student is the narrator?

The narrator is not just a good basketball player. He is also a very good student. At the beginning of the story, he talks about how well his eighth-grade year has gone: He has made two As and four Bs, and written a strong essay on the book The House on Mango Street. At the end of the story, the narrator is back at school again and writing an essay for his English teacher on what happened to him over the summer. One reason the author organizes the story this way is so that the reader will recognize that his time at the gym did not just teach him something about basketball. He learned lessons that he can apply to all aspects of his life.