Saint Invigorates Buena With Healthy Performance

There has been no guardian angel standing at the side of Buena High senior center Andy Saint, who has suffered enough injuries and illnesses to secure a place on the All-Red Cross team.

From broken thumbs to broken hips to damaged knees, Saint has endured a career at Buena that only Evel Knievel could appreciate.

Despite sitting out last season after undergoing two knee surgeries, Saint has kept healthy this season.

Relatively speaking, of course.

Strep throat, which Saint twice has contracted this season, is a mere hangnail in Saint’s world of ailments.

Yet Buena basketball Coach Glen Hannah remained on alert, and last week that proved to be a wise move. Less than 30 minutes before the Bulldogs boarded a bus for their Southern Section Division I-A playoff game at Huntington Beach Marina, the school nurse informed Hannah that one of his players had been injured during a chemistry experiment.

Hannah instantly knew the identity of the casualty. After all, Saint had failed to twist, tear or tweak anything all season.

“As soon as (the nurse) said it was one of my players,” Hannah said with a laugh, “I asked, ‘Was it Andy?’ I wondered what could have possibly happened to him in school.”

If you’re Andy Saint, it could be a paper cut that leads to gangrene. Or a shooting hand caught in a three-ring binder. Or an exploding chemistry experiment that sends one hurtling off a counter and onto the floor.

The latter actually occurred.

“I was kind of dazed about five seconds,” Saint said above the roar of laughter from his family. “I had a big ol’ knot on the back of my head.”

After he showed no signs of a concussion, he received permission to play.

Hannah’s sigh of relief might have been heard all the way to Huntington Beach, where Saint played a pivotal role in Buena’s advancement to the I-A semifinals.

Although he averaged a mere 7.9 points and 7.9 rebounds during the regular season, Saint averaged 19 points and 15.3 rebounds in Buena’s first three playoff games. Last week, Saint had 41 points and 31 rebounds in playoff wins over Marina and Pasadena.

Senior guards Lance Fay (29.4 points) and Nick Houchin (14.2) carried much of the Bulldogs’ scoring load. But Saint’s emergence as a force underneath gave the Bulldogs another dimension.

“We felt coming into the season that Lance was a given and Nick would give us some solid play,” Hannah said. “Andy was going to be a big key, if he could remain healthy.”

That doubt remained with Saint all season. He twice suffered from strep throat, including a current bout, but missed only one game. Saint’s ability to remain healthy has been as surprising as Buena’s success. In a preseason poll of Channel League coaches, Buena was picked to finish fifth in league play. The Bulldogs won the title with a 13-1 record.

As a freshman, Saint missed part of the season because of strep throat. The following spring, he suffered a broken thumb while skim-boarding at the beach and missed part of the summer-league season.

Saint remained healthy as a sophomore and was the most valuable player on the junior varsity. The following summer, he damaged cartilage in both knees when he landed awkwardly after a dunk.

He underwent two surgeries in five months and sat out his junior season. Last summer, another post-dunk landing resulted in a fractured right hip and he missed the summer-league season.

Finally, six weeks before this season, Saint sustained a torn muscle in his left hip and didn’t earn a starting berth until six games into the season.

“It was frustrating not playing my junior year because it meant I wouldn’t get any recognition from colleges and wouldn’t receive any invitations to camps,” Saint said. “It pretty much blew my chances at a scholarship, but you have to take your (lumps).”

Saint has taken more than his share, thanks to a tremendous growth spurt between his freshman and sophomore years. Saint stretched from 5-foot-9 to 6-3.

“The doctors said most of my problems were because my muscles were bigger than my bones,” said Saint, who is now 6-5.

Yet Saint’s heart might be biggest of all. He overcame the setbacks and has become one of Ventura County’s top inside players. Said his mother Mary: “Andy took his lumps. It was all just kind of a fluke and bad timing.”

Last Tuesday’s chemistry accident showed Saint that his timing is still a little off--although not enough to stop him from scoring 20 points and grabbing 19 rebounds in a 97-77 win over Marina that night.

“After a game like that I told his dad that he should hit him on the head with a board all the time,” Hannah said.