Lymos McDonald was a standout on the football field at Hazlewood High School. He led the Golden Bears to the 1982 State Championship during his playing days. The two-time All-State performer went on to earn All-American honors at Alabama State before returning to a coaching position in his hometown.

McDonald coached basketball and junior varsity football at Hazlewood before taking the head coaching position at Courtland High School in 1999. He nearly took the head coaching job at Class 5A Escambia County in February, 2003 before changing his mind 24 hours later.

In 2009, Courtland merged with rivals Hazlewood and Speake to form R.A. Hubbard High School. McDonald stayed on with the new program and served as the defensive coordinator.

His overall record in ten seasons as the coach at Courtland is 80-40. Many of his teams played a schedule that included teams from higher classifications or his record would be much better. It seemed no one wished to play his teams from Courtland.

Coach McDonald left R.A. Hubbard after 11 seasons in Courtland and was hired as an assistant coach at Colbert County High School in 2010.