Look to Your Left. Look to Your Right. Same Guy.

Regardless, the family was never compelled to try to unravel the mystery.

"It wasn't a lack of pride or curiosity," Sun said. "We were just going to let the kid be who he's going to be and just help him develop in as many ways as we could but with a minimal amount of analysis."

There's a lot for Mulroy's observers to figure out. His baseball roles, power-hitting catcher and closer, are an interesting combination, as are his favorite classes, chemistry and Spanish. He is considering studying both for a possible medical career in Latin America. His parents both work in publishing, but unlike his sister, he is not an avid reader.

Mulroy is the strongest player on the football team, unusual for a quarterback. He benches 250 pounds and is the second-fastest at 4.56 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

In baseball, his fastball tops out at 85 mph, thanks in part to a fresh right arm. He can get the ball to the plate with his left hand, but he does not have the same command or pop.

"Sam, why don't you play baseball lefty, too, and pitch both games of a doubleheader?" junior teammate Brian Pourciau once suggested to Mulroy, as have others.

"On a baseball field, I'll try to throw left-handed, and I look like a chicken with my head cut off," Maret senior Liam Duffy said. "He tries to throw a baseball left-handed and it's like on a frozen rope. By now, everybody's like, 'Oh yeah, that's Sam.' "

Varsity Letter is a weekly column about high school sports in the Washington area.