From Findlay to Columbia, Lamont Paris has been 'a coach on the floor'

Lamont Paris looks ready to jump out on the court at any given moment in a game.

Constantly clapping his way through the 40 minutes, encouraging his players after every minutiae moment. Pointing at spots on the court as possessions progress. Throwing his arms up after a turnover or a defensive breakdown.

“It’s the best sport,” a passionate Paris said after South Carolina lost to Tennessee on Jan. 7. “People see your face, you’re right there in the mix of it, you get to play both sides of the ball, it’s an incredible sport. And how blessed are these guys that they get to do it every day? I’d trade places with them in a heartbeat; hopefully you can tell that. I’d trade places with the guy that never gets in the game in a heartbeat.”

The 48-year-old Paris still longs to be out there on the court. It stems from his overflowing love for basketball and his experience as a player.

From 1988-1992 Paris was a student at Findlay High School in Ohio, about 45 minutes south of Toledo. He played point guard for the Trojans, some of the early steps in a basketball life that led him to six different stops in college basketball before finally landing in Columbia last March.

“As a point guard for us he was very level-headed,” former Findlay assistant head coach Tony Staib told GamecockScoop. “He never got too high, never got too low, played just with a poker face. Cool as the other side of the pillow, as [former ESPN broadcaster] Stuart Scott would say.”

Paris started playing basketball at the local YMCA with his father, where future teammate Chris Ireland met him for the first time years before he was in high school.

“I’ve known him since elementary school,” Ireland told GamecockScoop. “He is a very relentless hard worker. He’s always been a self-starter. He’s always been that guy that works hard, did all the things that needed to be done and he was a good leader for us.”

The work led him into a leadership role on a loaded roster at Findlay. Paris captained what former head coach Jerry Snodgrass remembered as “one of the best teams we’ve had.” He checked the traditional boxes of a point guard, creating shots and opportunities for his teammates in the games and setting the tone for them everywhere else.

But more than being able to perform the traditional duties of his position, coaches and teammates remember the mental side of his game. His basketball IQ. His situational awareness no matter what was happening around him. Someone who was not a primary scorer by nature, but was capable of scoring bursts when the moment called for an individual to take over.

“He just had natural skills,” Snodgrass told GamecockScoop. “He was rangy, he was quick, he wasn’t tall but he grew. He was a basketball player. I’m emphasizing those words, ‘basketball player.’ He epitomized court sense more than anything.”

Ask anyone who was there, and they will tell you his high school career peaked on one spring night in 1992. Postseason tournaments in Ohio were broken first into district tournaments before progressing to the state level, and Findlay faced a particularly tough draw in a district with three of the top eight teams in the state.

Findlay matched up against Lexington High School for a game played in front of a packed house at Bowling Green State University. Lexington’s key player was Jamie Feick, who led the school to state championships in 1989 and 1991 before eventually playing five years in the NBA.

“We had a game plan,” Snodgrass remembered. “We worked very hard on it, and about two possessions in they were denying our wings so bad Lamont took it on his own shoulders. He was like, ‘if they’re going to deny our wings, I have to score.’”

Not only did he score, he scored a career-high.

Paris dropped 29 points in Findlay’s upset win and “was the reason we won that game,” as Snodgrass put it. On a team with six players who went on to play basketball at the next level — Paris himself at Division III Wooster College — he was the driving force behind a landmark victory.

“Lamont played his best game in the biggest environment,” Ireland said. “I remember at one point he was coming down the floor and I was just like, ‘do what you’ve got to do.’ He was getting one-on-one coverage, and his outside shot was going. He went off that night.”

In the fall between his junior and senior basketball seasons, Paris played a year of football. It was a thin roster, pressing players into service on both sides of the ball. Paris played wide receiver and defensive back, with his old friend Ireland tossing passes to him as Findlay’s starting quarterback.

“Football might be the most fun on game day,” Paris said. “I honestly do believe that, just because it’s in the face of such miserable practices. I couldn’t stand the practices, but Friday Night Lights was unbelievable.”

Learning a new sport is challenging for anybody, let alone trying to play two different positions. He did not come in with a strong background in football or the collegiate prospects some of his teammates had. What he had was everything he used provided the basketball court.

Learning quickly. Working hard. Leading his teammates. Doing whatever the situation called required.

“The other football guys that had been playing all the way through school and everything, they had great respect for him because of how he worked,” former Findlay head coach Jim Caserta told GamecockScoop. “They appreciated that, I think, because he contributed right away and he was able to mix in and carry his own weight from the get-go.”

As the starting point guard on a basketball team, engaging with teammates is a given. The roster is small — particularly at Findlay — and you are responsible for everything from calling out plays to shouldering the production burden. But that role was less established in football, a sport with far more players in a room full of players with experience dwarfing his.

In reality, Paris had to carve it out for himself. He did it one play at a time, one game at a time, and yes, for as “miserable” as they were, one practice at a time. Eventually, it paid off. Caserta remembers one standout moment from his year as a defensive back, when a critical third-down pass break-up helped turn the tide in a game.

“What I remember about it was not only the great athletic play, but when he came off the field, I just remember his face,” he remembered. “The ear-to-ear grin, and the other kids just totally feeling that. He was definitely part of the football team and he made a great play, and he was totally accepted. I just remember him coming off and being like, ‘man, I’m glad you’re on our team now.’”

Nobody who knew Paris at Findlay is surprised about his career path. Not in the sense he always talked about a future in coaching, or it was apparent he would be one of the few in the profession to rise all the way through the ranks and take over a Division I program in a major conference.

“He has a great gift of communication with young men,” Staib said. “He just communicates well, he knows the game, he’s so personable and I knew as he started recruiting our guys that he’s going to move up the ladder and have a successful career. He wasn’t the loudest guy on our team but when he did speak, people listened.”

People are still listening. The fans of his program as he slowly works to sell his vision for the program. His assistant coaches as he tries to nail down the system he hopes will stick around in Columbia for a while. His young players as he coaches them through a challenging year of development in his first season at South Carolina.

In so many ways, he is still the same player who took the ball up the court or knocked down passes in Findlay.

“He always had the ability, but he played within our system,” Snodgrass said. “I think that identifies him as a coach on the floor.”

Now he is a coach who wishes he could still be on the floor.