Showing grace under pressure
Tristan Etienne returned to play for Mouat after open-heart surgery
To all of those who know him, the size of Tristan Etienne’s heart was never in doubt.
That he returned to the basketball court to play the game that he loves just over a month after undergoing open-heart surgery, however, does nothing but confirm how special a person the 6-foot-9 Grade 10 forward with Abbotsford’s W.J. Mouat Hawks really is.
“I have some on-days and I have some off-days,” Etienne reported Wednesday during lunch break as his Hawks prepared to host Coquitlam’s Gleneagle Talons in the opening round of the Fraser Valley Triple A championships later in the evening. “Some days are sore, some are good.”
Yet what has remained consistent is the manner in which one of the most talented players in the province’s graduating Class of 2014 has applied himself to his sport, always with the intention of finding success in the team realm.
As the 2011-12 season was just getting underway in November, Etienne decided to see doctors following an episode of a racing heart. What was detected was a hole in his heart, one which, if not treated, could cause complications in later life.
Clearly, it wasn’t the kind of hurdle your average 15-yearold has to deal with, but Etienne stayed strong for everyone around him, undergoing open-heart surgery on Jan. 11 at Vancouver Children’s Hospital.
“They told me that the blood in my heart was leaking from one chamber to another,” Etienne explained.
“And because it was leaking, one side had to work harder than the other to replace the leaking blood.
“So when I got to [age] 30 or 40, with the overuse, it would have got swollen and tired. They said it was better to fix it now.”
The thought was that he would miss the rest of his season, but everyone concerned just wanted Etienne to get healthy.
“The basketball part was irrelevant,” said Mouat cohead coach Rich Ralston. “We’re talking about someone’s life here.
“But he went back for his one-month checkup and he got full approval to resume activities. This is definitely a special kid.
“His first comment to me was that he didn’t want to talk [to The Province] about it, because he didn’t want anyone paying any extra attention to him.”
Yet if you’ve seen Etienne play, you know he’s impossible to miss.
“The best thing about Tris is that while he probably has more potential that any young player in the province, I think he is the best teammate that I have ever seen,” said Pasha Bains, who has worked for years with Etienne on his skill development through the DRIVE Basketball Academy.
“The humour that he showed through all of this in the text messages that he was sending, to when I went to visit with him in the hospital, all of that showed that he is mature beyond his years. He showed strength for everyone, because everyone around him felt so bad for him.”
And while Ralston admits his star forward is understandably behind from the standpoint of cardio and conditioning, “he is a difference maker at the defensive end of the floor at 70 per cent. We have to remember, he is still only 15, and that unto itself is pretty impressive.”
Catch Etienne in a gym, and the first thing you notice is just the way that he moves up and down the floor. There is an unmistakable grace to his stride, and it’s something Bains says he, too, noticed from the beginning.
“The best thing I can say, and what I tell [NCAA] Div. 1 coaches about him all the time, is that he is the best at getting to loose balls I have seen, and it’s not just from being a big guy.
“He is so flexible, and agile and co-ordinated. He moves like a guard. Ever since he was a little kid, there was something fluid about his movement.
“And he is such a tough kid,” Bains continued.
“I guess all of this stuff just proves how big a heart he does have. He honestly has a huge heart.”
And while he has always had the physical stature to match it, Etienne is actually still adding height to his frame.
Yet when you ask him about that, he gives a special answer, one that thankfully is open to interpretation.
“I have been growing constantly,” he laughs.
“I’ve never stopped growing.”