CLEANING UP : Greg Santos Overcomes Drug Use and a Two-Year Layoff From Baseball to Become Simi Valley’s Leading Power Hitter

This is a story about an athlete and drugs. Yes, another one of those stories.

Just when you thought it was safe to turn to a sports page without finding the two shamefully linked, you’re reading all about it--again.

The athlete is 17-year-old Greg Santos, designated-hitter for Simi Valley High. The drug is marijuana.

But the ending, somewhat surprisingly, is a happy one--so far.

Drug rehabilitation, as Santos readily admits, is an ongoing process, an uphill battle. But Santos, a soft-spoken senior, is more than willing to meet the challenge.

“I just take it day by day,” Santos says repeatedly for emphasis. “Once you slip out of the recovery frame of mind for a second, it can backfire on you. I’ve been sober well over a year now. I promised myself I’d never touch it again.”

After much personal turmoil and a two-year layoff from baseball, Santos is back in the batter’s box, taking a healthy cut at life. He is batting .327 with team-high totals of seven doubles and four home runs.

Simi Valley (19-2 overall), ranked No. 1 in The Times’ Valley Poll, is currently atop the Marmonte League standings with an 8-1 record. The Pioneers will travel to Newbury Park today for a 3 p.m. game against the second-place Panthers (7-1).

Santos (6-foot-1, 185 pounds), the Pioneers’ cleanup hitter, remarkably has emerged as a slugger in one of the toughest high school lineups in Southern California.

“Off the top of my head, I can’t remember anyone out of the blue coming out that late and making the team,” Simi Valley Coach Mike Scyphers said. “We’re happy to have him in our program. He hits the ball hard.”

In January, Santos met with Scyphers after enduring a turbulent 18-month ordeal that included personal counseling, a monthlong stay in a drug-rehabilitation hospital and a junior year at Apollo High, the continuation high school in Simi Valley.

“I told him I never deny anyone a tryout,” Scyphers said, “but it would be tough for him to make the team. He hadn’t played in two years. I had already ordered the team’s shoes and jackets. And I hadn’t ordered Greg Santos’ size.”

Yet, Santos succeeded. “I said, ‘I’ll try,’ ” Santos recalled. “I’ve busted my . . .”

Two years ago, Santos was an apathetic sophomore, smoking marijuana and cutting classes--both with alarming frequency. His lethargy led to falling grades and two shoplifting arrests. He also lost his academic eligibility, which precluded his chance of playing baseball.

“According to what the coach told me, I had a very good chance of making the varsity,” Santos said. “I knew all the players because I grew up playing with them. But as soon as I was ineligible, I kind of just shined. My attitude at that time was, ‘Shine all those guys, I can just go home and get high.’ ”

Home, however, was hardly a haven. Tensions mounted between Tony Santos and the youngest of his three sons, whose attitude, the father said, had frightfully worsened.

“He was getting into things that I had no control over,” said Tony, who was divorced from Greg’s mother three years ago. “It was very hard to get through to him, very hard to communicate. His sophomore year, his grades really went down and he basically gave up.

“I felt like, ‘Where did I screw up?’ I blamed myself for not being there and stuff like that.”

The father’s frustrations led to a meeting with Joe Studer, a close friend and a marriage-and-family counselor for 25 years. Greg grudgingly agreed to meet regularly with Studer, who also serves as assistant principal at Apollo.

“Greg was turned off to school or doing anything for himself, and he was physically out of shape,” Studer recalled. “Things were bad at home, school, everywhere. Greg had hit a severe bottom as far as I was concerned. It could have meant his life.”

Drug abuse--which also included Santos’ experimentation with cocaine--family problems and painful emotions all were tackled through counseling.

“I really became good friends with this guy,” Santos said of Studer. “He could talk to me like no one else could. We got in-depth and he made me believe in myself.”

Like most patients, Studer said, Santos’ first step to recovery was admitting that he was dependent on drugs. The second step was to begin rehabilitation.

In February, 1988, Santos checked into Coldwater Canyon Hospital. Thirty-three days later, he checked out.

“We’d basically go to meetings and relate with other people who were going through the same problems,” Santos said. “It taught me a lot, like it’s OK for a guy to cry. It’s not like he’s letting his ego down. It makes you feel good afterwards.”

Santos remains a member of “Be Free,” an outpatient therapy group that meets regularly and gathers for sobriety parties.

His attitude, those close to him say, has distinctly changed.

“Most significant is his spiritual growth,” Studer said. “I don’t mean in a religious sense, I mean his psychological well-being. He’s become the Greg that nobody knew before.”

Santos is insightful about his past, of which he talks openly, not with a sense of shame but with one of hard-earned self-respect. He pauses between sentences, giving the matter a moment’s thought before answering.

“I guess I wanted to grow up faster than I should,” said Santos, who added that his brothers never used drugs. “I always wanted to hang around people that were older than me because people always said I looked older than I was. It’s just that some of the people on my sports path kind of got me on the wrong path.”

Said Tony Santos: “He had basically given up because the one motivation he had--baseball--wasn’t working out. But his attitude has changed tremendously. He wanted to go back to Simi High and he wanted to go back into sports.”

And so, Santos and Scyphers met again. Scyphers remembered little of Santos, except that he had showed signs of becoming a good hitter. Once informed of Santos’ drug history and subsequent rehabilitation, Scyphers considered the matter closed.

“I treat him just like everyone else in the program,” Scyphers said. “His past was never a factor. It’s not like I have to deal with it. It’s not like I have to look into his eyes every day.

“It’s not a factor.”

Oh, but it is. And Greg Santos is the first to admit it. “It’s forever,” he said. “It’s like once you’re an alcoholic, you’re always an alcoholic. I’m just glad that I have everyone there if I need them.”

And so, life--and sobriety--goes on for Santos, who is scheduled to graduate in June. His most pressing concern right now is battling “a little slump.” His average has dropped 20 points in the past week, causing Scyphers to become “a little concerned about him.”

But his new-born attitude, he says, will see him through.

“I figured it was my last chance,” Santos said of his return to baseball. “I told myself I’m going to give it my best shot. With what I’ve gone through, I could basically get through anything. I didn’t come back to this school for nothing.”

Beyond Simi Valley? Well, like Santos says, let’s take things one step at a time. College--probably Moorpark--is only a possibility.

“I just look ahead and take everything one day at a time,” Santos said. “That’s the main rule. I just tell myself, ‘I still have the willpower.’ And I’m pretty sure I can accomplish anything.”