A oui bit of BC3 will be at Paris Olympics
Joe Lewandowski will open his luggage in a hotel in Paris, set aside his Team USA athletics wear, and select one of his Butler County Community College polo shirts embroidered with the Pioneers’ logo near his heart to wear on his walk through an Olympic Village housing 15,000 athletes, coaches and staff.
“That’s a big part of who I am,” said the head coach of the BC3 men’s basketball team and of the Team USA 3x3 men’s basketball squad debuting in the 2024 Summer Games. “That is standard for me. You always represent where you are from. That’s important to me.
“I want people to know about me and know where I am from.”
Lewandowski — who in his first two seasons at BC3 has coached the Pioneers’ program to a 30-19 record and its only appearance in the National Junior College Athletic Association national championship tournament in 56 years — is believed to be the only Butler County resident in the 2024 Summer Games.
The Butler resident has been coaching or advising Team USA since being asked a decade ago by USA Basketball, the sport’s national governing body, to help develop a national 3x3 men’s basketball program.
Lewandowski’s squad did not qualify to compete in the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo (delayed from 2020), where 3x3 basketball debuted as an Olympic sport.
His Team USA gained an automatic berth in the 2024 Summer Olympics through points accumulated in games against national teams in countries such as Austria, Chile, China, Philippines and United Arab Emirates.
“Your goal is to win a gold medal”
Four days after he and his four players — Canyon Barry, Jimmer Fredette, Kareem Maddox and Dylan Travis — participate in a July 26 opening ceremony expected to be watched by 1.5 billion television viewers worldwide, Team USA will begin its Olympic Games schedule playing against Serbia.
“I remember watching the Olympics with my family every year,” Lewandowski said. “That was huge for us. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I would love to be there one day if that was a possibility.’ Now I get a chance to experience it and live out that dream.
“It’s such a huge event that it may be easy to get distracted by all the other things that are going on. You just have to stay focused on what you have prepared to do for so long. It’s an awesome event and you want to take it all in, but at the same time you understand you are there for a purpose. Your goal is to win a gold medal.”
Lewandowski as a BC3 student was a member of the college’s chapter of an international academic honor society. In 1995, he graduated with an associate degree in general studies, and as a guard/forward on the college’s men’s basketball team, he was selected as an NJCAA first-team All-American.
He was hired in 2022 to coach the BC3 men’s basketball squad. In 2023, he was named the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference coach of the year after guiding the Pioneers to the conference championship. A week later BC3 won its first NJCAA Division III Region 20 title in 21 years.
“We’ve all visualized the podium”
In addition to Serbia, Team USA joins national squads from China, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Poland in seeking to advance to the gold medal game at 6:35 p.m. Eastern on Aug. 5.
Days afterward, Lewandowski will open his luggage in Butler, unpack his Team USA athletics wear, his BC3 polo shirts — and possibly a 2024 Summer Olympics medal.
“The gold medal will mean that you put a ton of work in, that you continued to progress and maybe you got a little bit lucky,” Lewandowski said. “We’ve all visualized the podium. It’s the national anthem that you hear over and over in your head. There is no greater experience, just looking up at the flag and having that moment to yourself to be appreciative and thankful.”
Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
