PULLMAN – When Maris Vavers picks up the phone, his voice comes through a little crackly. He’s on the road, where he’s spent much of the past couple months, cruising down I-5 in his rental SUV on a sunny weekday in late February. He’s on his way to San Diego, one of his absolute favorite American cities.
“During this period of time, while I’m here,” Vavers says through the static of spotty coverage, “I’ve met a lot of friends.”
It’s about a three-hour drive from Los Angeles to San Diego, but Vavers doesn’t mind. He’s on his way to play volleyball, the first sport he loved growing up in Latvia, with some friends he met only about a month prior. What’s another 120 miles on the odometer when you’ve already logged several thousand?
Nothing quite captures Vavers’ life at the moment like this. He’s in his second month of a trip stateside to visit his son, Rihards, a junior wing wrapping up his second season playing for Washington State — where’s he finally putting up the kinds of numbers he always figured he’d be able to at this level.
On Wednesday night, Maris was at Los Angeles’ Gersten Pavilion, where he watched Ri score 12 points in WSU’s loss to Loyola Marymount. The Cougars’ next game is also in Southern California, a road matchup with Pepperdine, which Maris will also attend. Since flying in to the United States in December, Maris has been at all of Ri and the Cougars’ games, rocking a white Latvian national team jersey with their last name emblazoned on the back.
Maris has turned his life upside down, staying at an Airbnb in Pullman when the Cougars have home games and hopping in his rental SUV to follow them around on the road. The long drives haven’t bothered Maris, who has driven all over the West Coast: to Portland, Seattle, San Diego, the Bay Area, Corvallis. When Ri and WSU have had a game, Maris has been there, no matter the location.
“It’s amazing,” Ri said back in January. “I get to see my family maybe three, four weeks out of every year. So him being here means a lot to me, showing my family support. I love seeing him here. He brings a good charm.”
“We have a special bond,” Maris said.
It’s not Maris’ first trip to the U.S., but it is his favorite, after Ri was out with recurring injuries during his multiweek visit last year. This time, Ri isn’t just on the court, but standing out in his third year of American college basketball. He’s averaging 11.7 points on 43% shooting from beyond the arc, both career highs when accounting for volume. He’s long been regarded as a lethal catch-and-shoot threat, but has become dangerous at close range.
This season, Vavers has converted a sharp 68% of his 2-pointers. He’s made a habit out of attacking closeouts and getting to the basket, where he’s unsheathed all kinds of elusive moves, even getting a laugh out of WSU coach David Riley after Vavers poured in 21 points to beat Pacific last week. “He’s got some crafty little footwork in there on his drives,” Riley said.
Playing a career-high 25 minutes per game, Vavers knows he’s always had that. He’s just finally getting the opportunity to show it.
The Cougs’ season hasn’t gone exactly to plan – heading into Saturday’s game against Pepperdine, they’ve lost five of their last six games, falling to sixth place in the WCC as their struggles on the road bite them time and again – but good luck blaming Vavers. He’s scored in double figures in 10 straight games. His season 3-point percentage of 43% ranks No. 19 nationally. In West Coast Conference play, he’s connected on a remarkable 46% of his 3s, which ranks fourth in the conference.
Vavers hasn’t just become a release valve with his ability to space the floor and knock down triples. He’s become something close to an offensive engine for Riley’s team, putting the ball on the floor to get to the rim, spraying it out to fellow shooters when he can’t. He didn’t get the minutes to show that kind of versatility at Quinnipiac, where he played his freshman campaign two years ago. He didn’t get the chance last year, when he suffered a broken hand in his WSU debut, broke both his hands after returning to action about a month later, then spent the remainder of the season trying to get back in rhythm, showing promising flashes in fluctuating minutes.
All of that has changed this year for Vavers, who isn’t just playing the best basketball of his career. He’s doing it in front of his dad, who has driven all over the country to take it all in.
“He’s trying to be more of an overall player,” Maris said, “not only a shooter, but also going to the rim and grabbing rebounds, playing hard on defense. This kind of shows his character. I’m really, really proud and happy that he’s healthy and he can showcase himself in the best way.”
Maris Vavers, left, talks with his son, Washington State forward Rihards Vavers, on the court after a game against Saint Mary’s on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Wash. (Geoff Crimmins/For The Spokesman-Review)
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Maris may be having the time of his life traveling to all these games, but he still has work to do. He’s a poultry trader in Riga, the capital city of Latvia, where he works normal hours when he’s at home. Only problem: On the American West Coast, he’s 10 hours behind Riga time.
“At 10 p.m. here,” Maris said, “it’s 8 a.m. in Riga.”
Which means Maris has to work remotely. Between 1 and 2 a.m., he’ll log on to his laptop and begin work, sometimes staying up long enough to see the sun rise.
“When you have to resolve all the situations like at work, it can be till 6 a.m.,” Maris said.
It can be even longer depending on the country he’s working with, he said, adding that corresponding with colleagues in Belgium and France can keep him up until 7 a.m.
That doesn’t leave Maris much time to sleep. He’s taken lots of naps. Sometimes he’ll complete some work during the day – the middle of the night in Europe. “Then I can have some sleep,” Maris said, “and get, I don’t know, one hour, two hours. My sleep habits are really bad. I’m not happy about my sleep habits.”
Somehow, he makes it work, getting by on a combination of a few hours during the night, a couple hours more during the day for naps. But to understand the real reason Maris finds the energy to keep this operation spinning, driving untold hours all over the West Coast and making new friends everywhere he goes, you have to understand his son’s background.
When Ri was growing up, he took an interest in basketball, which already represented something of a departure from family tradition. Maris is a lifelong volleyballer, authoring a successful playing career before transitioning to the coaching and front office side, even working as an assistant coach for Latvia’s national teams, including a three-year run from 2013-15.
Maris likes to tell this story: In 2003, Ri was born in the middle of a game that Maris was working as team president of. So when word got to the arena that Maris’ child had been born, the PA announcer read it to the gym. “That was his destiny,” Maris said with a laugh, “to do a sport.”
The specific sport didn’t much matter to Maris, who had Ri try out all sorts of them growing up, including swimming. Ri found an interest in hoops, particularly the game in America, where he had a natural connection. His mom, Baiba, graduated from VCU, located in Richmond, Virginia.
That tie was close enough to the home of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, who organize camps for youth players. Maris knew Ri loved basketball, that he had talked about enrolling in American school someday, so in August 2019, the two decided to take the trip, bringing along Ri’s sister, Laura.
Not long after they arrived, Maris and Ri met an assistant coach from nearby Archbishop Carroll High School, a Catholic prep school in northeast DC. After watching Ri take part in the Wizards’ camp, the coach liked what he saw, so he put a good word in to other coaches at Archbishop Carroll.
That’s about where things ended, at least while the Vavers were in the U.S. Shortly after they returned to Latvia, Maris got a call from the Archbishop Carroll coach, who had secured a spot for Ri on the high school team. The rub: Ri wanted it, he would have to make his decision within a couple days.
Ri didn’t hesitate much. He was ready to take the chance, his father explained, so he packed all his things and hopped on a flight to Washington, D.C., where his life’s next chapter awaited.
“When Ri took that risk, it was like he came for the unknown. He came for the unknown,” Maris said. “He was following his dreams. Of course, not everything was (easy). He has his own struggles because of cultural differences. He’s young. We as a family understood that … That process, what he went through, he became really mature.”
After playing for Archbishop Carroll, Vavers spent the 2022-23 year playing at the Skill Factory, an Atlanta-based training and development program. He earned a few offers, including one from Quinnipiac, where he took his talents for his freshman season. Now he’s a Cougar, giving his dad chances to see parts of the world he never had.
Maris Vavers, center back, watches his son, forward Rihards Vavers, play during a Washington State men’s basketball game on Saturday at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman. (Geoff Crimmins/For The Spokesman-Review)
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The next time you turn on a WSU game, look a little closer at Ri’s lower leg. It’s there he has a tattoo that speaks volumes about his close relationship with his father. In black ink, there’s a Latin saying: Ad astra per aspera. In English, “to the stars through difficulties.”
That’s a saying that Maris first learned growing up. When he reached a professional volleyball league in Europe, he was teammates with a player who shared the saying, which spoke to Maris. So he kept it in mind, choosing the right time to pass it on to Ri: when he was a high school senior in Washington, D.C., where he was still learning to adjust to a new country, a new lifestyle.
“We kept that saying in our soul,” Maris said, “that you work hard when nobody sees, and when the spotlights come, you prove yourself.”
Ri certainly knows what it’s like to endure the difficulties before reaching the stars. In November 2024, when he made his WSU debut in the Cougars’ season-opener against Portland, he played only 16 minutes before disaster struck. He broke his hand. It sidelined him seven games, nearly a month all told.
Vavers returned in time for a road game against Nevada, sporting some tape on the hand he injured. Five minutes after checking into the game, he went down, holding his hand. Initially, he stayed in the game and connected on two free throws, but he had to leave the game shortly after. Later, he learned he had broken bones in both hands.
That kept him on the shelf for another month and a half. In his first game back, he tallied 11 points on three triples, but his production wavered as he worked to establish rhythm. In the Cougars’ WCC Tournament win over LMU, he canned 4 of 5 tries from distance for 16 points, making one thing clear: When he’s healthy, he’s lethal.
At the time, that description best applied to his catch-and-shoot abilities. But as his second WSU season has unfolded, he’s looked more and more comfortable putting the ball on the floor and expanding his game, punishing opponents for running him off the line.
His biggest fan has been in the stands to watch it all. Fun fact: Ri and Maris share the same birthday, Nov. 17. When Ri was growing up, he would host birthday parties and invite his friends, who figured they were only going for their buddy’s celebration. When it was time for cake, Maris wouldn’t only bring one for his son. When he walked over to the table, he would also set one down for himself.
“Then they realize, oh, Ri, it’s also your dad’s birthday,” Maris laughed. “I’m opening the door for all the guests and getting all the presents for Ri. Somehow I got left behind there. But I’m OK with that.”
As he traverses the country, following Ri and the Cougars to games in Pullman and Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, Maris doesn’t get left behind anymore. Just look for him in the white Latvija jersey.
Maris Vavers, center, talks with other fans before a Washington State men’s basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Wash. Vavers’ son, Rihards Vavers, is a forward on the team. (Geoff Crimmins/For The Spokesman-Review)
