Mission Viejo’s Bayer to Have Surgery Today

Mission Viejo High School center David Bayer is scheduled to have surgery to remove his gall bladder today at UCLA Medical Center and will miss the remainder of the basketball season.

Bayer, 17, suffered a gall bladder attack before Mission Viejo’s South Coast League opener against Capistrano Valley Jan. 8 and was rushed to the hospital by the school’s principal, Bob Metz.

“David started getting sick after every summer league game, so his father took him to Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where they ran all kinds of tests but couldn’t find out what was wrong with him,” Mission Viejo Coach Joe Reid said. “He doubled over in pain before the start of the Capistrano Valley game and that (gall bladder) was it.”

Bayer, a 6-foot-8 senior, averaged 15.1 points in 10 games before being sidelined. He is the school’s student body president and has a 4.0 grade-point average.

“David worked hard all summer at Performance Institute with Marv Marinovich to improve his game,” Reid said. “It’s an unfortunate situation.”

Earlier, Mission Viejo lost returning forward Matt Denny for the season when he tore cartilage in his knee during preseason drills. Denny averaged eight points last year as a sophomore starter.

“Matt had just come out from football and was running a drill when he heard something pop,” Reid said. “I was really excited about this year and then we’ve had these two injuries set us back.”