By losing most of two formative years on the basketball court, Evan Manville takes none of his experiences with the Union boys basketball team for granted these days.
The 6-foot-7 senior forward returned healthy for his final high school season after suffering a broken foot that kept him out for the majority of his junior season, which came on the heels of a shortened sophomore season during the pandemic.
Just a few weeks ago following Union’s senior night game against Battle Ground, Manville feared another setback when he landed on the same foot awkwardly during a practice. But, he avoided the worst, missing just a three games before returning in the postseason.
“I was kind of freaking out, I’m not gonna lie,” Manville said. “I thought that senior night probably could’ve been my last game. I was worried, because when I came down, something cracked. I was going through it at the moment. But we got the x-rays, nothing’s broken. I just kept working to get it better, and now I’m back.”
Manville was back in the lineup for Union’s 4A bi-district win at Kentridge, then delivered a signature performance Feb. 17 in Union’s final home game with 23 points on seven 3-pointers to help the Titans defeat Emerald Ridge and clinch a berth in the Class 4A state opening round.
The No. 9 seed Titans (18-6) will face No. 16 Sumner (13-14) at Battle Ground High School on Saturday at noon with the winner moving on to the state round of 12 next week at the Tacoma Dome.
Making a deep run at state is important to Union and Manville, but also, it’s more time for the senior to share with teammates on and off the court.
“I bring up all the time that he’s a kid who’s lost a lot of basketball,” Union coach Blake Conley said. “He’s been kind of cheated out of a couple very valuable years. High school sports (are) so fleeting, but I think he embraces it more than other guys, because he knows how valuable it is and how it can be taken from you.”
Manville grew up in Utah and Colorado before his family moved to Clark County and he enrolled at Union as a freshman. He’s been playing basketball for as long as he can remember.
The quiet, humble freshman started basketball season on Union’s C-team, but later caught the attention of Conley and fellow coaches with his hard work and game performances. He knocked down 11 3-pointers in a game against Kelso, prompting coaches to elevate him to JV for the rest of the season.
“He was so unassuming, but it was like, ‘he can actually really play,’ ” Conley recalled. “Then we find out, oh, he goes to Shoot 360 all the time and he’s doing all this. Because he’s so quiet, we didn’t really realize, like, this kid loves basketball and he wants to be really, really good. … It took a little bit for us to realize what we had with him.”
Sophomore year, Manville’s first on Union’s varsity team, was somewhat of a throwaway for everyone in a condensed season played over several weeks in the 2021 spring.
Junior year was lining up to be an important one for Manville to take another leap and flourish in Union’s program.
Then, the day before the team’s first open gym of the season, Manville came down and landed on someone’s foot during another training session. X-rays indicated Manville had a broken bone in his foot. The estimated timetable for recovery suggested he would miss most, if not all of the season.
“It was a bit of a tough time,” Manville said.
“I just knew I’d miss being out there with the guys. We had a good group that year. Bryson Metz, who was a great point guard, it would’ve been nice playing with him. But, I just kind of had to deal with it and keep working through it.”
“We were devastated because we thought he was going to have a breakout season,” Conley added.
What was telling for the rest of the team, though, was how much Manville remained a part of the Titans. He attended every home game, even joined a couple road trips and, except for a few days he was elsewhere working on his injured foot, Manville was at every practice, too.
“I learned how to be a better teammate off the court,” Manville said. “I couldn’t be there on the court, so I had to find other ways to help. I also learned how to work through adversity, you know, kind of dealing with all that stress of not being out there and wishing you were out there.”
Also to his credit, Manville was “religious with the rehab,” Conley said, and was cleared to play in spurts during Union’s playoff run, where the Titans ultimately finished fifth at state.
This season, Manville joined a Union starting lineup alongside Yanni Fassilis, Josiah Baldassare, Samair Thompson and Kody Holcomb, providing the Titans another sharp-shooter and overall versatile player. Manville was also named a team captain.
Conley has noticed a growing confidence in the senior from the beginning of the season to now. His teammates have total trust in him as well.
“I’m so proud of Evan, man,” Fassilis said after Union’s win over Emerald Ridge. “(He) had to sit out three really big games. I know that hurt him a lot, but that dude loves basketball, and I’m just glad he came back and he’s still playing with his confidence. We know he can play like that every game.”
Despite an up and down first month of the season, Union hasn’t lost since early January. A win Saturday against Sumner gets the Titans back to the Tacoma Dome, a place Manville hoped to get another chance to play.
“You never know when something’s going to be taken away,” Manville said, “so I just wanted to make the most of it.”
