For Bubba Lemon, it all comes back to joy.
The Tualatin High School boys basketball and girls flag football coach wants his teams prepared, smart, and confident, but he wants them to play happy.
“What I really try to teach these kids is that people are watching you play, and if you’re not playing this game where they can feel joy and excitement from you, you’re not feeling joy and excitement from it,” he said. “If you’re not feeling joy and excitement from the game, why are you playing?”
There was plenty of joy to go around Tualatin this past school year, when Lemon led the boys basketball team to the state championship, his second in four years as head coach, and then led the girls flag football team to a state title in just the program’s second year.
It was a long year for Lemon, as the run to the state title in basketball stretched out the winter sports season into the early parts of the spring season, when flag football started. Lemon said the lengthy run of the two sports back-to-back was made possible because of his support.
“I could not have done it without my family, especially my wife and everything she takes care of at home,” he said. “I don’t think you can get through two long seasons like this without being around people you really enjoy.”
Lemon, 38, lives in Salem with his wife and their two daughters, Mychaiah, 4, and Lark, who was born in October. He also has four brothers, two older and one younger, who all live close and help out with different teams.
Sports has been important to Lemon’s family his whole life. All four brothers grew up playing multiple sports. Lemon played football, basketball and baseball while attending Tualatin High School.
He played football in college for both Linfield College and Willamette University. While at Linfield, there was a time when Lemon and all three of his brothers were all playing for the team at the same time, and their father was a coach on the team.
Lemon actually joined the coaching staff while he was in college, and coached at the collegiate level for nine years. He also started coaching youth basketball when he got a call from Rick Osborn to join the Tualatin boys basketball program as a coach.
While at Tualatin, Lemon played for Osborn. The longtime Tualatin coach was getting ready to step down, which Lemon didn’t know at first. Once he was on staff, Lemon asked Osborn why he called up his former player to come coach.
“I want to make sure my last couple years here I’m surrounded by people that I really enjoy being around,” Osborn told Lemon.
It was something that stuck with Lemon, who took over the program a few years later after Osborn stepped down and then Todd Jukkala took over, leading Tualatin to its first state title, and then stepped down, as well.
Since taking over the program, Lemon has led the basketball team to two state titles in four years, and they’re consistently ranked as one of the top teams in the state. Lemon said when the kids are invested in the program, they demand more. They want those challenges. They feel more of an investment. They feel heard.
One player who knows Lemon perhaps better than any other is Carter Lemon, an incoming senior who will be playing his fourth year for the boys varsity basketball team this winter. He’s also Coach Lemon’s nephew.
spring. Adam Littman/Tualatin Life
Carter Lemon said his uncle has been coaching him in basketball and football since he was growing up. He said his uncle also does a great job listening to his players and getting them involved in game planning.
“He has a really versatile coaching style,” Carter Lemon said. “He’s adaptable depending on the kids on the team. He makes sure we’re heard throughout the season, and then when he has something to say, we’re all in with him. We all trust him. He’s a coach you want to follow.”
Isabella Hernandez felt that even before Lemon was her flag football coach. She was struggling as part of the girls basketball program, and Lemon saw that and helped her a bit. Once she had him as a coach, she gained ever more appreciation for how he handles the ups and downs during a season.
“He doesn’t let problems sit,” she said. “He pulls us together and reminds us we’re a team, we’re family. We’re not just friends, we’re a family, so we work through things.”
The boys and girls basketball programs at Tualatin are very close, so Ries Miadich knew Lemon for a few years before flag football started, as she was a member of the girls varsity team all four years at the school. She was then quarterback for the state title flag football team.
Two years ago, the Tualatin girls basketball team won the state title when Miadich was a junior. The Timberwolves put together a furious second-half comeback to win the state title, and it was capped off by a three-pointer from Miadich.
While the comeback was going on, Lemon was serving as a cheerleader, standing in front of the Tualatin fans waving a towel and making sure they were loud.
“He makes it exciting to be here every day,” Miadich said. “He makes practice super fun. He teaches us things we need to know on the field, but will help us through personal stuff, too. I really love him so much. He’s a joy to be around.”
Lemon thinks he knows exactly where that desire to spread joy came from: his grandfather. Lemon’s grandfather is the late Meadowlark Lemon, the legendary member of the Harlem Globetrotters, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
While his grandfather was traveling around the country playing in charity games and preaching into his 80s, Lemon said he got to know him well before Meadowlark died in 2015.
“For my whole life, whenever he came up, people would smile,” Lemon said. “They can’t think about him and how he played and not smile. He would always talk about joy. It’s probably the most impactful part of me and who I am as a player and as a coach. He always wanted players to play with joy because they love the game.”
