Freshman soccer forward Cameron Bohn knew his way around Metzgar Fields long before he donned a Lafayette College jersey. Stepping on the pitch as a player now, he’s familiar with the environment thanks to his father, the men’s soccer head coach Dennis Bohn.
The freshman forward from Forks Township grew up with soccer around him at every turn. Between his father, who has been the Lafayette men’s soccer coach for 24 years, his mother, Jaime, a former Division I soccer player at the University of Utah – even his younger brother Quinn, who played alongside him in high school – Cameron Bohn knew his way around a goal from a young age.
“We had soccer balls everywhere, so I was kind of just used to it,” Cameron Bohn said, adding that he played for the YCMA and club teams as a kid.
In addition to playing on the pitch, Cameron Bohn was a successful multi-sport athlete, playing baseball in his childhood and basketball for Notre Dame Green Pond High School before ultimately settling on pursuing collegiate soccer.
“A lot of parents would have said, ‘I only want you to play soccer,’ but I’ve always let him play multiple sports,” Dennis Bohn said. “I never put any pressure or had any expectations on him in regards to soccer, just happy as a dad to go see him do whatever he had had a passion for.”
Although Dennis Bohn never formally coached his son’s teams before joining the Leopards, his son was still able to pick up tips and tricks from his father in his skill development.
“He transformed me into the player I am,” the younger Bohn said. “Like after games, he would always harp on things and they made me better.”
His father felt otherwise.
“Yeah, I’ll give all of his credit, all of his talent, credit to his mom,” Dennis Bohn said.
Cameron Bohn grew up around College Hill. From being christened in Colton Chapel to being around the soccer program his whole life, playing for the Maroon and White is a dream come true for the forward, but it’s not a dream without its challenges.
“I have to separate the fact that he’s my son when I’m around the team, and he has to separate the fact that I’m his father around the team,” Dennis Bohn said. “When it’s just me and him, we can still be father-son.”
However, that does not mean the elder Bohn takes it easy on the younger.
“In preseason, I got it, I got it good, I remember one day I yawned, and he made sure of it to let me know that it wasn’t gonna happen again,” Cameron Bohn said.
Senior forward Andrey McIntyre had the chance to meet Cameron Bohn before his commitment to the Maroon and White.
“He’s been around the team for years, and he’s shown massive interest in being a part of the program, and that’s the type of player that we need to be on this team,” McIntyre said. “There’s no favoritism or anything like that. He’s one of us, I would say, and I think that he’s fit in the team very well.”
While Cameron Bohn appreciates his father’s support, he also wants to build his own identity on the team.
“I want to be like all the other kids and feel that I’m just a player like them, and not just the coach’s son,” he said. “I want to have to work as hard and earn my spot and my time and do everything that everybody else is doing, just as if he wasn’t my dad.”
