Coach Bohn is in his third year of coaching Beckman soccer and is constantly learning new ways of coaching. It is his fifth year as a soccer coach, having previously coached fro the Capistrano Valley High School girls’ program. Originally Coach Bohn came to Beckman for a teaching position, but when he heard of the position, he did not hesitate to get involved.

In the past few years, Coach Bohn has found that there are new ways to motivate his athletes. “Every team is different. Every player is different.” His passion for coaching comes from his love of competition and believes that “coaching is a natural fit to my knowledge of sports.” On his favorite part of coaching, he smiled as he said, “the camaraderie…getting a group of individuals to become a team.” The former NFL kicker emphasizes team chemistry as a team goal.

Some goals the team has set are to obtain a combined grade point average of 2.75 or higher and to make CIF playoffs at the end of the regular season. However, Bohn’s goals are more closely associated with “effort and attitude”. He wants the young team to put in a 100% effort at all times and to grow as a team throughout the season. He firmly believes being “better at the end of the season; that’s a successful season.” He also mentioned he tries not to worry about the scores. In his opinion, the team has already met several goals. He pointed out that the expectations are the same for all levels of boys’ soccer.

After a long, thoughtful pause, Bohn said the strongest asset of the Varsity team is that they are “starting to understand what it is to be a soccer team and play together.” Concerns for his team include team chemistry, consistency, youth (there are only three seniors on the Varsity team), and the continuous battle of trying to teach mental preparedness. Another goal is to eliminate racial tensions, being how there are boys from seven different countries of the world. This is, in Bohn’s opinion, the “best part of the team. We are a good representation of the school’s population.”

The daily lives of these young student-athletes are so busy that there isn’t time for horseplay. They have the “challenge to balance” their priorities with their everyday lives. Coach continued by saying, “If you are able to do that, success will come later in life.” Bohn feels it is a major “honor to be a student-athlete.” These boys have to balance their grades and be top level students all while having to go to practice two or three hours a day and some of the boys still have to go to work! The boys have definitely committed to success early. In the first quarter of the school year, three days were set aside for study hall while only two were on the field. “Academics were more important than being on the field,” Bohn believes some distractions are “girls, school work, and anything going on that day [in their lives].” He feels one of the difficulties in coaching teenage boys is that he has “to try to connect with each kid individually.” The impact of the sport on the boys’ lives is significant. Coach Bohn feels it “gives them a group of guys to hang with, a sense of belonging, and something to do.”