Big Valley Christian defensive coordinator Lema named head football coach. What’s his plan?
Adam Lema has a knack for breaking down tough concepts.
As a geometry and physics teacher at Big Valley Christian, he takes two of high school’s most mystifying subjects and makes them relatable.
“That’s part of the challenge,” he said. “I try to make geometry interesting, I try to have fun in physics. I do my best to bring real-world applications.”
Never one to back down from a challenge, Lema will take over as the Lions’ head football coach after Brian Berkefeld accepted a position as the varsity offensive line coach, head junior varsity coach and track and field throws coach at Strong Rock Christian School in Locust Grove, Ga.
“We are excited to have Adam Lema as our new head football coach,” Big Valley athletic director Sarah Beers said in an emailed statement to The Bee. “He brings many years of coaching experience to the position and we love his holistic approach to coaching.”
Being on the sidelines is nothing new.
Lema spent time in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a high school head coach in Idaho before the Roseville native returned to California with his wife, a Modesto Christian graduate.
He settled into Modesto and got back on the sidelines at the youth level, coaching his son on the Modesto Christian Kingsmen, and has been part of the youth football system in Modesto for 13 years.
Four years ago, Lema connected with former Big Valley coach Brian Berkefeld and joined the Lions’ coaching staff as defensive coordinator while also coaching with the Big Valley Sabers at the seventh- and eighth-grade levels. He served as the Big Valley Christian varsity DC for the past three seasons.
Lema is confident the relationships that he was able to build with young football players will translate to the high school level as many of the players he coached in the Trans-Valley Youth Football League will be entering high school in the coming years.
The Lions varsity team is already projected to see expansion in 2023 with the incoming freshman class. Lema is expecting “more than double” the number of players from last year’s team.
“It’s really exciting,” Lema said. “There is the opportunity to really bring some excitement offensively and bring some aggressiveness defensively … while trying to restore enthusiasm for the program within the student body.”
The Lions finished first in the Central California Athletic Alliance in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 seasons under Berkefeld and made four straight Sac-Joaquin Section playoff appearances from 2017, his first season, to 2021. They just missed the 2022 postseason after a loss to Stone Ridge Christian that decided the CCAA champion.
Lema plans to implement an exciting, faster-paced offense. For the past few seasons under Berkefeld, the Lions stuck to the ground and pound game powered by the Wing-T, but Lema is looking forward to spreading the ball around through the air with a shotgun wing-T offense.
Defensively, he plans to switch from the 4-2-5, which he called as Berkefeld’s defensive coordinator, to a 3-3-5.
“It’s a defense I fell in love with years ago.” Lema said.
Despite the league success, the Lions did not win a playoff game. Lema is looking to build on the foundation Berkefeld laid.
“He did a great job of coming into Big Valley, and he brought a tradition of winning,” Lema said of Berkefeld. “The goal now is to go up another notch and try to get us into the sectionwide conversation.”
