How former Spring-Ford and Villanova star Lucy Olsen built a family joke into a brand at Iowa

Like most little girls, Lucy Olsen just wanted to be part of whatever her big sister was doing.

“Lucy was 4 years old, and we would take her to watch her sister play,” Olsen’s mother, Kelley Olsen, said. “When the team or the game went to the far end of the court, Lucy would jump off [the stage], grab a basketball, dribble around … and she’d have a little smile on her face.”

From there, Olsen, the middle of three girls, was hooked.

She joined the Spring-Ford community basketball program in kindergarten. By third grade, Olsen was playing on the fourth-grade travel team, where she was teammates with her older sister, Olivia, and was coached by her father, Roland Olsen. She also traveled to tournaments and showcases year-round with her AAU teams, starting with the Collegeville Jaguars.

» READ MORE: Lucy Olsen is off to a fast start at Iowa. Here’s why her ‘basketball is fun’ motto still rings true.

But basketball wasn’t the only sport she tried. Olsen tried soccer, lacrosse, and tennis, and even once attended a field hockey camp.

“She told me she was going to play tennis in high school, and I was excited because I used to play,” her mother said. “And then it came out that she realized tennis was the shortest season so she could get back to basketball quicker.”

Some phases lasted longer than others, but basketball was always her true passion.

“Whenever I had free time … I would just go outside and dribble around in the driveway or shoot hoops with my friends, with my dad, with my sisters,” Olsen said. “And I never really got sick of it or I never really thought I was working out. It was just for fun.”

Spring-Ford girls’ basketball coach Mickey McDaniel knew early on that he had something special in Olsen.

“In her very first game here, we were at home, and she put on a move and drove to the rim,” McDaniel said. “And I turned to the other coaches and I said, ‘We’re going to be watching something special for the next four years.’ And we did.”

In her four seasons with the Rams, Olsen was 2021 Miss Pennsylvania Basketball, a two-time first-team all-state selection, and four-time first-team all-Pioneer Athletic Conference. She also is Spring-Ford’s all-time leading scorer with 1,699 points and holds the program record with 379 career assists.

To cap it off, Olsen also played first doubles on the tennis team and brought home a state tennis championship in the fall of 2020. The tennis program had never even won a district match until the 2020 season, Spring-Ford tennis coach Todd Reagan said.

But according to those closest to her, it wasn’t the accolades that made her a legend. It was her work ethic.

On weekdays, Olsen would shoot for about an hour at school before classes began. After a full day of school, she’d participate in a 2½-hour practice, eat dinner at home, and then head to the Spring Valley YMCA to get extra shots.

“Basketball was her first sport, her second sport, and her third sport,” Reagan said. “It was her love.”

And when you find something you love that much, it never truly feels like work.

“I think one of my main things is that I’m doing it for fun,” Olsen said. “So if I’m not enjoying it, why am I even doing it?”

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IThat mentality fueled Olsen to play collegiately in the first place. Olsen first went to Villanova in 2021 and played under Denise Dillon for the first three years of her college career.

She finished her Villanova career ranked ninth in all-time scoring at the school. As a junior, she was the Big 5 player of the year and an honorable-mention All-American who was Division I’s third-leading scorer with 23.3 points per game. She also was the Big East and Big 5’s most improved player.

After her junior season, Olsen transferred to Iowa, which had just come off a second straight NCAA championship game appearance led by now-WNBA star Caitlin Clark.

But, staying true to herself, Olsen didn’t care about what had happened in the program’s past. She was focused on making her impact in its future.

“After she committed, she turned to me and said, ‘Coach, I’m not Caitlin Clark, I’m Lucy Olsen, and that’s who I’m going to be,’” McDaniel said.

In one of Olsen’s earliest college interviews, she was asked a question that she didn’t know how to answer. Instead, she said the first thing that came to mind: “I just like to play basketball. It’s fun.”

“She told us that with a smile on her face,” Olsen’s mother said. “It’s now become a joke in the family because it’s just so easy and perfect. It’s just totally Lucy.”

But what once was an innocent comment in a press conference now serves as something much bigger than just a simple quote.

“Her mantra is ‘basketball is fun,’ and that’s just what she is,” Reagan said. “She’s looking to have fun, but she definitely wants to beat you. You could be racing to get water from the water fountain, and she’ll race you. She loves the competition, but every single time she’s smiling when she’s doing it.”

That balance between fun, competition, and dedication is helping Olsen influence the next generation of young athletes — especially girls.

Olsen and the Hawkeyes play at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which seats 14,998 fans. Those seats are full nearly every game with young girls who travel across state and national lines just to watch Olsen and her teammates play. She is averaging a team-high 18 points for the Hawkeyes (22-10).

“I just met a girl the other day — she was from Toronto, and it was her Christmas present to come watch Iowa women’s basketball,” Olsen said. “They get so excited when you say hi and sign something. I remember being in this position, and it’s so cool that I’m here now and I get to touch, I get to impact all those people.”

That impact is not only the legacy that Olsen is creating for herself in college hoops, it’s ingrained in the roots that she was raised with.

“I never saw her walk away from a picture with anyone, especially with any young girl,” McDaniel said. “She was always there to give and not to take, and to me, that’s what Lucy is all about.”