BOYNTON BEACH — Lamar
Thomas walked into Boynton Beach High's main
office, started in one direction, then juked left
as if trying to ditch a cornerback. He paused,
attempting to remember the route to his new
office.
"I feel like a student again," he said, grinning
sheepishly.
"You look like one, too," said receptionist Susan Pell,
who pointed him in the correct direction.
Thomas, 38, is experiencing déjà vu on the football
field as well, where he is reuniting with his
Gainesville high school coach, Rick Swain, who is
entering his first year as the Boynton Beach head
coach. Thomas is expected to coach wide receivers and
be one of two offensive coordinators.
He plans to bring the same fire to this job that made
him one of the best receivers in University of Miami
history. His enthusiasm made him an up-and-coming
broadcaster, too, until it breached the conventions of
live television.
Friends of Thomas, who had a modest NFL career with
Tampa Bay and the Dolphins, say his personality is his
greatest asset and biggest liability. It halted his
career as a sportscaster two years ago when he was at
the Orange Bowl to call a game between his alma mater
and Florida International.
When a helmet-swinging brawl delayed the game for 24
minutes, Thomas sounded like he was rooting for the
Hurricanes to beat down what he considered an
overmatched, overconfident opponent.
"You come into our house, you should get your behind
kicked," Thomas said from the Comcast Sports SouthEast
broadcast booth high above the field. "You don't come
into the OB playing that stuff ... I was about to go
down the elevator to get in that thing."
Two days after Miami's 35-0 victory, Comcast Sports
SouthEast fired Thomas.
"I'd hate for any of our careers to be defined by that
night," said Larry Coker, who was dismissed as Miami's
coach at the end of that season. "His passion got in
the way, but his passion makes him who he is."
Thomas now hopes to infuse energy into a Boynton Beach
team that won just nine games during the past three
seasons. The school also plans to hire him as its
basketball coach, but principal Keith Oswald said
neither move is official yet.
Thomas, who played for Swain at Buchholz High in
Gainesville in the late 1980s, spent the summer working
with him and his players. Thomas also moved into an
office, put UM posters on the wall and snagged green
and orange folders for his files.
Leaning back in his chair behind his desk, Thomas said
he always dreamed of being a coach. After he talked
himself off the air, he returned to UM to finish the
degree he would need to chase that goal with a high
school program.
"Everything happened for a reason," Thomas said. "The
Miami-FIU thing ... forced me to do what I should have
done for a long time. This is my calling."
Thomas understands the irony of casting himself as an
authority figure. He and Swain rarely meshed at
Buchholz - Swain wanted Thomas to focus on fundamentals
and keep quiet. Thomas liked to use his physical
ability to simply run past people or jump over them. He
also had a mouth.
"I'll do what you say, but I'm going to tell you what I
think," Thomas said. "That's what drove him nuts."
They laugh about those days now, but truthfully, Swain
said, their ideas did not coalesce until shortly before
Thomas graduated in 1988.
They maintained their friendship, but when Thomas
called this spring, it was their first conversation in
several years. Swain invited Thomas to attend Boynton
Beach's spring game. Thomas accepted, expecting only a
casual visit, but Swain asked him to speak to the team
and take notes during the game.
Afterward, Thomas mentioned his interest in coaching
and Swain immediately asked him to join his staff. Two
weeks later, Thomas accepted and began pursuing the
basketball vacancy as well. In fact, Swain intends to
serve as Thomas' assistant on the court.
"I can see it now: I'll say, 'Lamar, we ought to do
this,' " Swain said, "and he'll turn to me and say,
'Shut the hell up, I'm the head coach.' "
The good side and the bad
Swain had one thought when he heard Thomas' call of the
FIU-Miami brawl: "He's toast."
The media skewered Thomas, and even flamboyant UM
legend Michael Irvin called for his firing, but it was
not the first time a mistake hurt Thomas' reputation.
The Boynton Beach players are too young to remember his
exploits on the field, but many have researched him on
YouTube.
"There's three things they find: the catch in the
Orange Bowl, The Strip and the FIU game," Thomas said.
"Two of them are bad."
Thomas made a stunning, leaping grab for 38-yard
reception in Miami's 22-0 defeat of Nebraska in the
1992 Orange Bowl, but that play's glory is equaled by
The Strip's infamy.
In the 1993 Sugar Bowl, Thomas caught what should have
been a 90-yard touchdown pass, but Alabama's George
Teague caught him from behind and stripped the ball, a
lowlight in a 34-13 loss.
Perhaps more humiliating for Thomas was his 1996 arrest
for aggravated battery of his pregnant fiancée. The
charge later was dropped, but the public stain
remained.
Swain said the better side of Thomas isn't always seen
by the public.
Once, when Swain was coaching in the state basketball
finals, Thomas drove to Lakeland unannounced, bought
the entire team new game socks and paid for a post-game
meal at Red Barn Steakhouse.
A few years later, Thomas was at church in Tampa when
he saw a young boy put his plastic watch in the
offering plate. Thomas was so touched that he handed
the kid his own $10,000, diamond-studded watch.
"He's a lot like Michael Irvin - they have good and
bad," Swain said. "Thank God they have enough good in
them that people continue to give them a chance."
Kenny Berry, one of Thomas' former teammates, said it's
possible Thomas is just now becoming an adult.
"You can stay in that childish stage for a long time,"
said Berry, a first-year head coach at Berean
Christian. "Those struggles are learning tools, and
Lamar has overcome them. He has matured, and he's a man
now."
'An absolute technician'
Thomas, who was sometimes difficult to coach in high
school, plans to be a disciplinarian. For players who
commit careless errors in games, he has punishing
workouts in mind - what he calls "The Thomas Hour."
"I've warned them," Thomas said. "If they see a guy
about to do something dumb, they'll say, 'Hey, Coach
Lamar is crazy. Don't do that.' "
But during informal summer sessions, Thomas was
low-key, working to build relationships with players.
He occasionally ran routes with them.
"He looks like he could have four more years left if he
wanted to come back," quarterback Isaiah Howard said.
"He's like a big kid. He makes the vibe more
comfortable, but he also gets us into a working frame
of mind."
While Thomas has a lot to learn from Swain, who has a
30-year head start in coaching, Thomas should be well
suited to sharpen Boynton Beach's receivers.
"He was an absolute technician," said Arizona State
coach Dennis Erickson, who coached Thomas from 1989-92
at Miami. "He'll teach those kids to pay attention to
detail."
Swain said Thomas also should be able to reach the
players in a unique way off the field as well.
"He's the role model that I can't be," Swain said. "I'm
not black, I haven't played in the NFL and he's
younger. He fills the gap."
Thomas said his long-term goal is to coach in college,
but he now is fully committed to helping Boynton Beach
redirect a floundering program. That relationship seems
to be benefiting both sides.
"To be around the kids is a good thing for me," Thomas
said. "Sometimes I turn my head and smile, and think,
'I can't believe they're listening.' "
(palmbeachpost.com)