Lamar University basketball coach Steve Roccaforte should have two sore arms today from pounding himself on the back over a coaching move that’s part thinking outside the box and part stroke of genius.

Hiring Dr. Mark Honea to be his Director of Basketball Operations is a bold move that’s so far out of left field it came from about where Albert Pujols once drove a Brad Lidge fastball. But the brilliance of the move will be immediately obvious to anyone who understands the impact Honea made in Port Arthur, both as a coach and educator.

Others, meanwhile, are probably scratching their heads, wondering why Roc filled one of his vacant staff positions with a man whose only coaching experience was with high school girls. And, beyond that, a guy who coached his last game in 2003.

Trust me on this, any and all doubters will soon see the light. If anything, Mark Honea is overqualified for the position.

The minute he steps on campus, he’ll bring one of the sharpest minds to the entire university. Factor in his proven coaching ability, and his hunger to work again, and there’s nobody who could be as invaluable to Roc for the salary he had available.

Honea’s return to Lamar some 42 years after he received a basketball scholarship from Jack Martin and played on Billy Tubbs’ freshman team is a truly neat story that is endearing on several levels. It’s also another reminder of the strange twists and turns life can take.

For openers, he never wanted to leave a coaching career that came about as an afterthought. His master plan, after receiving a Master’s from Lamar and going to work on his Doctorate at the University of Houston, was to do research and ultimately become a college professor.

Then one day in early 1978, while employed as a teacher at Lincoln, a new football coach at Thomas Jefferson named Ronnie Thompson made an interesting proposal. Come to TJ and take over the girls basketball program.

Though he had never thought about coaching, the idea intrigued him. Twenty-five years, 10 district championships, 18 playoff trips and 574 wins later, he reluctantly walked away. Walked away from a 23-8 team with a rising superstar named RaShonta LeBlanc, and a core of other returnees who offered the promise of being a state championship challenger.

The decision boiled down to whether he was going to take on the challenge of caring for parents in deteriorating health, or continue to coach. Honea made his call from the heart and never looked back. He’s still heavily involved in caring for a father with dementia, but has been comfortable enough with his dad’s situation for a couple of years that he’s been itching to work again.

Ironically, it was Thompson who almost brought him out of retirement. Upon taking the football coaching job at Memorial two years ago, Thompson hoped to bring Honea on board in an academic/administrative type role. Unfortunately, he was not able to make the position work.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago. Roccaforte, having lost all of his assistants, was having lunch with his family and Honea’s name popped into his mind out of the blue. They hadn’t talked in a while, but they had quite a background.

Honea had been his 10th grade history and government teacher at TJ, as well as someone who helped Roc improve his basketball skills. Many times they went at it one-on-one in the gym. The student was basketball crazed and the teacher admired his desire to improve.

“It just came to me in a flash that Mark would be perfect for our Director of Basketball Operations,” said the LU boss. “First of all, I trust him big time. He’s one of the smartest people I know. He won like 75 percent of his games as a coach. I thought for him to be retired and not doing anything is a big time waste of talent.

“We just lost a couple of scholarships because of the APR stuff. Who better could I hire to send a message of how serious I am about the academic side and graduating players? How many coaches have a guy with a Doctorate on their staff? Who could be more perfect to relate to professors?”