Hometown Hopefuls: Jake Williams, Wisconsin

Throughout the summer, in a series called Hometown Hopefuls, NBC is spotlighting the stories of Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls from all fifty states, as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, as they work towards the opportunity to represent their country at the Paris 2024 Games next year. We’ll learn about their paths to their sports’ biggest stage, and the towns and communities that have been formative along the way. Visit NBCSports.com/hometownhopefuls for more stories from across America as these Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls prepare for Paris in summer 2024.

Jake Williams considered himself merely a good wheelchair basketball player after three years in college. It was a transfer back to his home state of Wisconsin that propelled Williams to become one of the best in the nation and a two-time Paralympic gold medalist.

Williams, 31, is one of the leaders of the national team, one that will bid next year to become the first to win three consecutive Paralympic men’s wheelchair basketball titles.

He is also now the head coach at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Whitewater has one-quarter of the enrollment of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, but it is a wheelchair basketball powerhouse with 12 men’s national titles since 1996 as well as a women’s three-peat from 2012-14.

Twenty-six Whitewater men’s and women’s players have represented the U.S. at the Paralympics, plus 17 more for other nations, according to the UW-Whitewater student newspaper.

“It’s kind of like a wheelchair basketball factory,” Williams said. “What makes Whitewater special is a lot of the alumni are still around the area and will still come scrimmage with us every day during the summer and during the school year. So