'Big Lew' Trains Olympic Boxing Hopeful in an Old Country Club Locker Room

Driving past the Chicago Heights Park District’s West Golf Course, it looks like your stereotypical layout on a beautiful summer day. There are as many golf bags and golf carts as golfers.

Go inside the basement of this particular course, however, and you find a completely different sport setting, a boxing ring.

After the country club closed its doors in the late-1990s, the course later was reopened to the public by the park district. The park district decided to turn the old men's locker room into a training facility for aspiring boxers.

Chicago Heights resident Pat Lewandowski, also known as 'Big Lew' in the boxing world, has been running the program through the Chicago Heights Park District for the last seven years.

"I started training boxers in the early '90s," Lewandowski said.  "I started the park district club in 1992 before going off on my own for a while. Then, in 2004, I started up the park district program again.”

The Chicago Heights Park District Boxing Club, also known as the Chicago Heights Boxing Club, was at Ashland Park from 2004-2006 before moving to the basement of the West Golf Course clubhouse building.

Lewandowski fits the bill for a trainer. He has a successful athletic background, winning power lifting contests while a teenager, going to Montana to play football in college and boxing after his football career was over.

Training mainly occurs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"When you train with me, we immediately start (going at it)," Lewandowski said. "At some other places, they sit around and put hand wraps on for 20 minutes and say they train for three hours, but that is virtually impossible.  With me, you are totally shot after one hour."

Lewandowski says he regular trains a group of about 8-12 adult females on a weekly basis, some that come in-and-out and others that are looking to compete in boxing matches. He trains some to box, even having them get in the ring and throw punches, even though they have no intentions of ever throwing a punch in competition.

"I can train you like you will be a fighter but never have to box," Lewandowski said.

Other activities Lewandowski incorporates into workouts include walking jaunts in the parking lot, stairs and jump roping. He has done one-on-one training for those serious about boxing.

He has one such boxer right now in his program, Martez Jackson.

Jackson Now Considered an Olympic Hopeful

Jackson, known as Tez, is a 165-pound fighter who is currently in Colorado Springs to participate in the U.S. Boxing National Championships. Jackson is 23-4 so far this season with 16 knockouts.

He hails from Georgia and didn’t pick up the sport until he was 24. After graduating from Georgia State University with an engineering degree, Jackson worked for a while at Texaco.

However, after losing his job, Jackson was out of work and not even boxing. Then, last year,  he picked up the sport again. He since has skyrocketed to the top of his weight class in the U.S.

“He is a brilliant kid,” Lewandowski said.  “He was up in Aurora living with relatives and needed a place to train, and he found me off the Internet.”

Lewandowski credits Jackson’s intelligence and dedication for his quick rise in success.

“He picks stuff up really fast and is a quick study,” Lewandowski said.  “It helps that he is also in incredible physical shape.”

Jackson credits both 'Big Lew' and the club for getting him started in the right direction.

“With Chicago Heights being the first place that I received any kind of training, it is where I got my foundation,” Jackson said.  “ 'Lew' sees my strengths and trains me so I can capitalize on them.”

Both Jackson and Lewandowski have high hopes of Jackson making it to the 2012 Olympics in London.

“I think he has a realistic chance to get to the quarterfinals of nationals, then go from there into the Olympic tournament,” Lewandowski said. “He is completely focused on going somewhere in life. He does things other guys don’t do. He is truly a natural athlete."

Lewandowski is a natural, too, it seems, when it comes to getting the people he trains to transform into the people they want to be through his guidance.