Lamar Thomas brings fiery spirit to job as Boynton Beach football assistant

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)