Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Like many kids that grow up in a small town like Solon Cam Miller tried a variety of sports as a child.

As his athletic career took off Miller continued to switch sports as the seasons changed and has put together an impressive prep resume.

Miller is a three-year varsity starter in basketball and is already a two-time all-state selection in baseball.

One sport always seemed to have priority over all the others for Miller and its not hard to understand how that became the case.

The son of long-time Solon football coach Kevin Miller, Cam was born into a life of prep football.

Two months after Kevin Miller accepted the head coaching position at his alma mater Cam was born.

“He’s always been around it in some capacity,” Kevin Miller said. “Whether he was a water boy or a ball boy he’s been going to games since he was born. It’s always been part of his DNA. It’s all he knows.”

While most kids tossing the football around their yard dream of playing in the super bowl Cam Miller grew up wanting to be the quarterback at Solon.

He spent years on the sidelines watching his father lead Solon to a string of four consecutive state titles from 2007 to 2010 and dreaming of following in the footsteps of those players.

“I think I started being a water boy when I was in first grade and that’s really where the love of the game started,” Cam Miller said. “When I was on the sideline and saw those guys and got to know them that’s what motivated to be a high school football player.”

After spending his childhood watching his father help the Spartans make history Miller has spent the last three seasons etching his own name into the history books of the storied Solon program.

A three-year starter at quarterback Miller will leave Solon as the most prolific passer in program history with 5,894 career yards and 79 touchdowns.

Miller directed Solon to three consecutive one-loss seasons, a pair of semifinal appearances including a 12-1 mark and a Class 3A runner-up finish this fall.

For all of his accomplishments Miller has been named the 2019 Your Prep Sports area football player of the year.

“I don’t think I realized how much football meant to me until this year,” Cam Miller said. “When I was a sophomore I think I watched one or two hours of film a week but this year I was watching five or more and I just really understand the game a lot more and that’s because of my dad. He’s really pushed me to be a better football player and a better person and I’m just thankful I was able to have this experience with him.”

Cam Miller grew up around the game of football. Specifically, Solon football.

His early memories aren’t of watching NFL or college games but rather Solon games or tape of the Spartans opponents.

“When I was a kid my dad used to have players or coaches over to watch film and I would sit in and try to guess the formations,” Cam Miller said. “I think I got yelled at a few times for being wrong.”

That time of learning the game around his father served Cam Miller well during his prep career.

He passed for 1,831 yards and 25 touchdowns as a sophomore and 1,627 yards and 26 yards as a junior.

Both Cam and Kevin Miller admitted there were tough times during those first two years as the father and son learned to be coach and player as well as quarterback and play caller.

“I had to learn how to handle that he is my dad and my coach and try not to take things personal,” Cam Miller said. “Learning how to take coaching I feel like that is one area where I have most improved over the past few years.”

That is just one in a long list of areas that Cam Miller improved this season.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pounder blossomed into one of the top signal callers in the state as a senior ranking fifth in all classes with 3,276 total yards.

“We tried to bring him along slowly, especially his sophomore year,” Kevin Miller said. “We didn’t give him the freedom to audible at the line of scrimmage and this year he really on every snap had three or four options on every play then post snap he still has a couple more options.”

A North Dakota State signee, Miller passed for a career-best 2,436 yards and 28 touchdowns while throwing a career-low four interceptions.

After completing less than 59 percent of his passes in his first two seasons combined Miller completed just under 70 percent of his career-high 247 attempts as a senior.

Perhaps most the most impressive improvement Miller made was adding a running element to his game.

He rushed for 344 yards and four touchdowns in his first two varsity seasons combined before running for a team-high 840 yards and 12 touchdowns as a senior.

“As a sophomore I don’t think I was the athlete that I am now,” Miller said. “I just feel a lot more comfortable. I ran a 4.7 40 at a camp this summer and last summer I ran a 5.1 so I felt like I could run the ball a little more.”

The career year from Miller helped Solon return to the state title game for the first time since 2010 where the Spartans lost 37-17 to Western Dubuque.

“Some people don’t realize how tough it is to win a playoff football game in high school, especially when you are the smallest 3A school so to do what we did is really unbelievable,” Cam Miller said. “To end the way that we did playing for my dad was really special.”

The individual stats stand out and the career 32-3 record as a starter is even more impressive.

None of those are what Kevin Miller has stressed to his son since he started tagging along to practice better than a decade ago.

“For me being able to serve as his father and his coach has been a true blessing but he’s not defined by the things he does on the field,” Kevin Miller explained. “My wife and I brought our son up in a way that we want him to be a good man and treat people the right way and I’m more concerned about who he is than what he does.

“The biggest thing I’m most proud of is he leads by example. I think he does the right things both on and off the field and provides a positive example for his teammates and the younger athletes and students within our school district and to me that’s leaving a legacy behind and that’s the most important part of his role.”

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