When coming home from football practice one afternoon while still in high school, Ben Boulware discovered his clothes were thrown on the lawn of his parents’ Anderson, S.C. home. At the time, the future Clemson linebacker had no idea why they were out there, but when he walked into the house, his little brother, Cameron, refreshed his memory.

Cameron is the youngest child of four in the Boulware family, and as the youngest, he doesn’t take a backseat to any of his three siblings, especially Ben, whom he shared a room with while growing up.

“Cameron had gotten mad at Ben about something, so he and one his friends got all of Ben’s stuff and all of his clothes and threw them in the front yard,” older brother Garrett recalled. “Ben was so mad. It was really funny, so Cameron got him back pretty good.”

What makes the story even better is to know who Cameron Boulware is. Garrett played college baseball at Clemson for three years, and now is trying his hand at the professional ranks. Ben is expected to be the 12^th-ranked Tigers’ starting weakside linebacker in the fall. So who is Cameron?

“He is Cameron,” said Ben smiling.

Cameron is a 17-year old special needs student at T.L. Hanna High School, who lights up the halls with his warm smile and his always carefree attitude. When Cameron was eight months old, he had a reaction to his vaccination shots which led to autistic-like symptoms as well experiencing seizures, though he has never been diagnosed with epilepsy.

Neither, however, has kept Cameron from competing with his brothers or their sister, Bailey.

“He has taught me so much in life,” Ben said. “You don’t know what Cameron is like until you truly meet him. I don’t ever think of him as being different. He is just Cameron.”

Garrett Boulware started for the Clemson baseball team from 2012-’14. He is now in the minor leagues.

His siblings don’t treat him like he is different, either. Despite being professional and collegiate athletes at the highest level, the Boulware brothers have treated Cameron like they did themselves when they were growing up.

“It wasn’t any different. To be honest, he is our brother and we picked on him all the time like anyone does their little brother,” Garrett said. “We put him through Hell sometimes. It was funny, though. He is our little brother. He picked on us and we picked on him, but no one else was allowed to touch that kid no matter what happened.

“We had days when he smacked me in the face and would smack Ben in the face. It’s funny to think about it. We would all get mad and wrestle and stuff. We are brothers.”

They also played tackle football. Before Ben was smacking around Oklahoma running back Samaje Perine in the Russell Athletic Bowl, he was smashing his little brother to the turf.

“We did not know if we could put him on the football field, but when we were growing up, Garrett and I would play tackle football with him in the front yard and we would lay him out,” Ben said. “We were not out to hurt him, we were just trying to toughen him up.”

Growing up as a special needs child, Garrett and Ben wanted their little brother to be able to defend himself from any bullies in case neither of them was around to protect him.

“We knew he was going to have some disabilities growing up and people would be picking on him so we wanted him to be as tough as possible. If someone messed with him, we told him to ‘punch them in the face and stand up for yourself.’ That’s the way he grew up,” Garrett said.

“He loved the physical nature of football. When we tackled him, he loved it.”

However, mom did not.

“My mom is really protective of him,” Ben said. “The reason we started letting him get in there and start playing tackle football is because my dad is a real tough, hardnosed guy. He loved it. He wanted us to make Cameron as tough as possible so he did not mind it at all, but my mom would get real mad. When she went out there and saw Cameron with four guys on top of him, my mom definitely did not like it.”

But Cameron would get up and come back for more, which did not make mom too happy, either.

“My mom would always get mad at us and tell us how we don’t know our own strength and he is different and he is gentler. That isn’t him at all,” Garrett said laughing. “He is a really tough kid, but I guess some times we can kind of intimidate him, but he gives it right back to us. He gets mad, but he does not take it the wrong way or anything. He knows we are just playing around.”

Cameron Boulware, left, and Junine Mattox of Anderson run in the 100 meter dash during the 37th annual Special Olympics Area 14 Spring Athletic Games at Westside High School. Cameron is the younger brother of Garrett and Ben Boulware of the Clemson baseball and football programs. (photo courtesy of the Anderson Independent-Mail. Taken by Ken Ruinard)

Cameron has always looked up to his older brothers. Since he was a toddler, he has attended every one of Garrett’s or Ben’s football and baseball games. He also watched his brothers when they participated in motocross events.

“I don’t know if he totally understands it, but I know he loves coming to our games and he loves watching us play,” Ben said. “He likes seeing us on the field. He likes seeing me hit people and he likes seeing Garrett throw out guys with the baseball and hit home runs.”

Garrett, who started for three seasons on the Clemson baseball team from 2012-’14, is now playing for the Cincinnati Reds Organization and plays for the Class A affiliate Dayton Dragons. When Ben runs down the Hill for the first game against Wofford as a full-time starting linebacker on Sept. 5, it will mark the first time in 50 years that brothers served in starting roles for two different sports at Clemson.

The best part, Cameron will have been there to see them both do it.

“He is going to be our biggest fan no matter what. He does not care if we strikeout or miss a tackle. He still loves us. He is our brother,” Garrett said. “He is definitely one of our biggest fans and I love him for it.”

But Cameron is also one of Cameron’s biggest fans.

“Cameron idealizes himself, too,” Garrett said. “Cameron is all about some Cameron. He loves the attention. He is never going to talk about himself, but he loves making a scene and stuff, and grabbing everyone’s attention. We kind of let him have it. It’s his five minutes of fame. It has made for some very awkward events. It’s funny.”

Cameron is a pretty good athlete himself. He runs on the T.L. Hanna track team, as well as serves as a manager on the football team.

“He is going to grow up and be a big guy,” Garrett said. “My mom has already said he is not going to sit around the house and just do nothing. She told him he is either going to go to work every day with our dad at the concrete plant or is going to get out and run track or do something like that.”

So Cameron runs track or rides his bicycle around the neighborhood. He has become pretty good at doing both.

“It has been really good for him. He was not in the worst shape, but he was not in good shape, either. It gave him something to do for five hours instead of sitting around the house twiddling his thumbs,” Garrett said. “It has been really good for him.”

It has also been good for him to watch his brothers and his sister stay active, and always being out-and-about in the Anderson Community. But more than anything, Cameron has been good for them.

“He is happy twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. He does not have a care in the world. Literally, if you see him he will have a smile on his face,” Ben said. “He is just the happiest kid in the world. He loves people. He loves his family and he just doesn’t worry about anything. He just likes having fun and he likes being happy.”