Former Maryland Lacrosse Standout Nick Manis Runs 100 Miles, Raises $140K for Parkinson’s in Honor of Late Uncle

A shared love for athletics binds Nick Manis and his family. 

His father, also named Nick, played lacrosse at Maryland from 1977-80. Long before that, his grandfather, George, played basketball for the Terps from 1950-53. It was only right that Manis followed in their footsteps. 

Manis, a native of Annapolis who graduated from Severn School, starred for Maryland lacrosse from 2013-17. During his time in College Park, he helped lead Maryland to three title games and four semifinal appearances, including a 2017 national championship win in which he served as a team captain.  

The midfielder’s standout career got him drafted to the Premier Lacrosse League’s Chesapeake Bayhawks, where he played five seasons from 2017-21, finishing his final season with the Maryland Whipsnakes. 

Manis’ love for sports was especially shared with his uncle, Brian Adam. But on a deeper level, it was Adam’s personality and aura that resonated with him.  

“He was sort of like a second father to me,” Manis said. “He had a presence when he walked into a room. He had a massive smile, was always laughing, cracking jokes and had a really contagious personality. You talk to a lot of his friends, or really anybody who came across his path, and they all had a lot of great things to say about him.”

Adam was a tight end at the University of Delaware from 1974-78. Among the numerous records he set as a Blue Hen, he still holds the school’s single-game reception mark for a tight end (12). 

Following Adam’s playing career, he worked for Amtrak, Capstar Partners and SunTrust Bank and became a father to three daughters: Jessica, Anastasia and Elizabeth. Many knew him as “Big B,” a fitting nickname for someone with a 6-foot-3, 220-pound frame. 

In 2013, following tests done by doctors checking on a neck injury from his football days that often caused numbness in his fingers, Adam received a troubling diagnosis. At just 58 years old, Adam was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Manis was a freshman at Maryland at the time. 

“I didn't really know too much about Parkinson's,” Manis said regarding his reaction to the news. “I knew it made people have shakes and tremors. I didn't view it as something with a timeline on his life. You could see some changes in his life, but he could do everything he wanted to do for the most part.”

As Manis learned more about the magnitude of his uncle’s diagnosis and observed the symptoms of the disease firsthand, he sought to find ways to raise awareness and money for Parkinson’s research. 

His most recent initiative took place on April 11, which is recognized as World Parkinson's Day. Its goal was to accomplish the aforementioned while celebrating the life of Adam, who passed away from Parkinson’s on Dec. 26, 2023. 

The initiative was bold and required strategic planning, hence why it occurred 16 months after his uncle’s passing. However, the wait proved to be worthwhile.    

“When my uncle passed, I wanted to do one more thing for him,” Manis said. “The idea was centered around many people donating so much money and time and supporting us for the first thing we did. My goal was to do something that would build a bigger audience, as well as motivate those people to want to donate again.”

Manis, his childhood friend LJ Urie and Adam’s son-in-law, Jeff, ran 100 miles through Maryland from Centreville to Ocean City. Their goal was to collectively raise at least $100,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and spread awareness for Parkinson’s disease.

“When Nick approached me about this, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking this is crazy because we don't have the time, and this is a huge risk,” Manis’ trainer, Ryan Morrissey, said. “If Nick did this just to do an event or a race for himself, I would not have supported the decision. … But when somebody comes to you with a why that is much bigger than his own fitness goals, who am I to tell Nick ‘You can't do this?’”

Manis crushed his goal, raising nearly $140,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation at the time of publication for his article. He even expects the number to grow to around $250,000 with the help of others pledging large donations.

During the 100-mile run, which Manis proclaimed the “B100,” the trio battled a torrential downpour that began before noon and didn’t let up for 17 hours. Undeterred, they pushed through the wind, rain, cold and dark before crossing the finish line 28 hours later, on April 12 at 4 p.m. 

“Doing this event for the reasons he did it, that to me personally, and I think obviously to him, means more than any competitive game in his career because the reasons are so much bigger,” Morrissey said. “What he did requires a completely different level of grit and overcoming adversity. … To see that growth in Nick as not just an athlete, but as a man, is a pretty cool thing to see.”

Manis says he had been preparing for the run for over a year with the help of his trainer, who joined the group alongside a friend for roughly 22 miles midway through. Manis and Urie's parents played an integral role in helping the group map out their food and rest stops. They fueled up at three Royal Farms locations and spent a night at the Caroline County YMCA. 

They didn’t account for the weather and adjusted their mission on the fly. Still, while Manis, Urie and Jeff hit varying points of struggle, they all crossed the finish line beside each other. 

“In a way, it was perfect,” Manis said. “I learned at Maryland that you can only control the controllable, which is your attitude and effort. You can't control the weather. You can't control any other things that may happen along the way. You can only prepare yourself to be in the best spot to perform at your best level.”

However, Manis’ desire to advocate for Parkinson’s and honor the life of his uncle started back in 2020. One of Morrissey’s friends, Al DeCecaris, ran Difference Makers — a charitable foundation that empowers people to make a difference through adventures. Every year, DeCecaris invites a small group of people to take on a strenuous challenge to raise money for a charity of their choice. 

Manis became interested in the Difference Makers’ 2020 event, which was scheduled to be a marathon through the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. The amount of time the event required to complete particularly caught his interest, spanning roughly seven to eight hours. 

Adam had a deep brain stimulation surgery in January of 2019 to help combat his disease. The full length of his surgery was seven hours. Therefore, Manis wanted to pay his respects by challenging himself physically and mentally for an equal amount of time. 

Due to the Coronavirus, the event never happened. But Manis had already been raising money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation in his uncle's name. He worked with Morrissey to schedule a similar event in Maryland and mapped out a marathon locally through the Bacon Ridge Trail in Crownsville, Maryland. 

“Neither one of us was so sure that he was going to be able to finish it,” Morrissey said. “It was that big of an ask. The events Nick has chosen to raise awareness and generate fundraising efforts have been far above anything he'd ever done in competitive sports. And he’s a former national champion.”  

The new event in Maryland included a 26.2-mile run that took about five to six hours. Falling short of the allotted time of the last event, Manis decided to spend the remaining time on a 2.2-mile swim along the Severn River. The route concluded at his uncle’s home off the river. 

Manis participated in the 2020 run and swim with Urie and another lifelong friend, Blake Wood. His former teammate at Maryland, Nick Brozowski, also joined the cause. Together, they raised $50,000 in Adam’s name for Parkinson’s research. Several of his colleagues also ran a marathon later to bump the total to $80,000.

Adam cheered Manis on as he finished his run and began the swim. Once Manis crossed the finish line, he was greeted by Adam, his family and many other community friends and family.

“It was surreal,” Manis said. “The support we had on that event was cool to see. The number of people we got together, between our parents, family and friends helping out was incredible. It was an experience for me, having all our support, not only from the financial donations but also from people who were there and helping us, which was huge.” 

That outpouring of support for both events reminded Manis why he started this journey in the first place. It was about honoring a man who meant everything to him and using his platform to rally a community around a cause that touches so many lives. Through every mile, Manis felt the presence of his uncle pushing him forward, not just as a source of strength, but as the heart behind it all.

The true measure of the “B100” wasn’t in the miles run or dollars raised, but in the collective spirit it inspired. For Manis, it was difficult to put the meaning behind the support he received for each event.  

“I think it obviously has to do with my uncle and the impact he left on people,” Manis said. “It really doesn't have anything to do with me. … To me, it proves the man that my uncle was and the respect that people had for him, and also it proves that this disease impacts a lot of people.”