Family and friends make local 3-on-3 basketball tournament a hit

Sometimes sports aren’t always about competition. Sometimes they’re about camaraderie and simply a good time.

But sometimes it’s both, and that’s the environment Mark Ward, Greg Evers and a number of their friends, family and area community members have built with their 3-on-3 basketball tournament in Western Washington County.

Ward and Evers grew up together playing sports at Banks High School in the 1980s, with Ward going on to a college basketball career at Pacific University, while Evers excelled on the gridiron at Portland State. Since, both coached, with Ward spending time as a long-time assistant basketball coach at Banks, while Evers spent nine seasons as the head varsity girls coach at Forest Grove, while ending his coaching career in 2021after 11 seasons coaching the Vikings’ varsity boys.

That experience with, and love for basketball, led the two to the creation of their now long-standing event — with a little help from an old adversary.

Upon graduation from Banks in 1985, Evers and Ward were invited to play in a similar 3-on-3 event put on by then rival, La Salle’s Dave Cach,who they got to know at an all-star event that summer.

“We got to play and watch basketball all afternoon and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread,” Evers said. “We couldn't believe how cool it was.”

So cool that not long after they started something similar of their own.

Originally, it was conducted at the Central School in Forest Grove, which now houses the Forest Grove School District offices.

Evers said they played on a 9-foot hoop on the property and played 3-on-3, had a dunk and three-point contest, and awarded trophies to winners.

After a handful of years there, the tournament went on hiatus. But when Ward — who owns and runs Jim’s Market in Banks — moved to the outskirts of town and built a court capable of hosting something similar, the tournament was resuscitated, and for the past 12 years has hosted the event with the idea of bringing young and older hoopers together.

Ward said his motivation for the latest iteration of the tournament was to provide his now grown kids the type of experience he and Evers had at Cach’s nearly 40 years ago as teens.

“We played in his (Cach) for like 20 years,” Ward said. “So, when my kids were growing up, I wanted to do the same type of thing for them.”

This year’s event — which was held on July 27 — had 36 players, with teams drawn randomly amongst all entrants. Ward says that the random draw prohibits stacked teams and often provides surprise winners.

“Every year when the teams get drawn, people will be like, ‘oh, that team’s going to win,’” Ward said. “But it’s kind of weird, most of the time they don’t. Some team will get hot or just play really well together.”

Registration was at noon, games started at roughly 12:30 p.m., with water and barbecue provided by Ward midway through the afternoon.

Games are to 18 points with two-point, three-point, and new to this year, four-point shots awarded, with the championship game being played to 21.

They used to hold both a youth and adult division, but as he and a number of the participants have gotten older, they’ve gone to a combined tournament that’s had both past and present participants from many of Western Washington County high schools.

Ward still plays, while Evers has hung-up the high tops and chooses instead to watch and enjoy the action with the couple dozen spectators who in many cases have taken in the action for years. But both still delight in what’s become an annual tradition for players, family, and most importantly, friends just having fun.

“I just like getting all the guys together and playing ball,” Ward said. “I don’t get to see all these ex-players very often, so it’s really cool to see them and their friends.”