Catching up with Jeremiah Dominguez

Former South Salem baller is still involved with… surprise—basketball.

When Portland State announced that former South Salem Saxon Jeremiah Dominguez was elected to be in the University’s next Athletics Hall of Fame this last week, it was a little bit of a surprise.  After all, it has been less than 15 years since the 5-6 Dominguez guided the Vikings to their best records ever (twice), but also was key force in the Vikings making it to March Madness (again—twice).

When yours truly attempted to reach out to Jeremiah to talk about the honor among other things, it took a while for him to get back to me.

After all, he is a busy man.

At age 37, Dominguez has done plenty of stuff since graduating from Portland State in 2009, but—to the surprise of almost no one—most of his time has been focused on basketball (insert surprised face emoji here).

Right out of college, Jeremiah was still quite interested in playing hoops professionally.  Although he didn’t get drafted by the NBA, or invited to a team camp—Jeremiah was ready to play outside of the United States—and did just that with a seven-year stint in Mexico that included four seasons in the resort town of Cancún. 

Dominguez scored as many as 28 points in a single game, but had a career average of about ten points a contest in Cancún—where the team made the Mexican Professional Championship Series (but never won it) three of the four years he played there.  Jeremiah averaged over 16 points a contest at his other stops in Mexico.

Dominguez returned to Oregon—and set up residence in the Portland area.  His work shifted from playing to training younger players both locally and elsewhere.

In no particular order, Jeremiah has worked with a Beaverton middle school,  and provided training at Grindtime—a local gym in Beaverton.  He also helped conduct a camp called “Rising Stars,” where he instructed 75 players in the Parkrose area of North Portland along-side former Jefferson High School star Thomas Gardener. Gardner played professionally in Europe, and then for the Bulls, Hawks and Grizzlies in the NBA.

Dominguez’s hoops work has also occurred outside of the Portland Metro-area.  He worked in the greater Los Angeles area with former Boston Celtics player Greg Minor on Showcase Basketball—a basketball academy that was very successful, right up until the pandemic shut it down.  Jeremiah also traveled to the Middle East, working with young players in the United Arab Emirates capital of Dubai as part of NBA Youth Basketball.

As for basic Q and A with Jeremiah, here is what he has to say:

Is there anyone special in your life—significant other, children?

“It’s just me.”

How are your plans for life coming along?

“Everything is coming together—taking care of new opportunities as they come—working with Beaverton Middle School students right now.”

Getting into the Portland State Hall of Fame is pretty special—and maybe it is even more special when you consider it has been less than 20 years since you graduated from PSU.  Are you surprised by being inducted so soon?

“It was kind of surprising, but kind of not… based on what happened with the (basketball) program when I was there, it does make sense.  After all, I was the shortest player to win… all those conference awards during my two seasons.”

Your height has always been something folks talk about when referring to you.  How do you respond to those “size” questions?

“It used to bother me, but now it is a teaching tool for me.  I like to talk about the effort involved to be successful.”

What sort of future plans are you pondering?

“I have been thinking about college coaching… I have mixed feelings about it because it is a lot of work and you have to work your way up. For now, I am happy about working with kids…. I can’t complain—I am eating everyday, paying my bills… it could be worse.  I have had plenty of good work opportunities.”

Jeremiah Dominguez is living the basketball life.