Another Year, Familiar Challenge for Poway : Last Time Team Was So Young It Won Title

SAN DIEGO — When Neville Saner stepped into his position as basketball coach at Poway High School four years ago, he had plenty to worry about.

Of his five starters, three were sophomores, one was freshman and one a junior.

But that team won the San Diego Section 3-A championship that season, and Saner has guided Poway to the championship each year since. With each passing season, Saner’s worries have dwindled.

Until now.

The 1986-87 high school basketball season, which begins this week for most county teams, presents Saner with the same problem he faced four seasons ago--inexperience.

Gone are Poway’s big names, most notably Jud Buechler, the county’s leading scorer last season, averaging 23.3 points a game. Buechler, 6-6, now plays at the University of Arizona.

The only returning member of last season’s championship team is guard Gary Anderson, a starter since his freshman season who averaged eight points a game. While Anderson primarily was a passing guard who fed Buechler and Dominic Johnson, this season, Saner hopes Anderson emerges as a team leader.

“Gary’s a good ballhandler we will be depending on to score more points for us this season,” Saner said.

Inexperience doesn’t necessarily mean weak, however. Poway’s junior varsity was 20-3 and won the Palomar League championship last season.

“The kids coming up from the JV team are now in a position where they will have to produce,” Saner said. “Without many returning people, they will have to play well.”

Saner admits that this season may be as difficult as his first.

“There is no team in San Diego (County) as good as Poway was the last two years,” Saner said. “Those were awfully good teams. But this season, I don’t think there are any invincible teams. Anybody can be beaten, including Poway, in my mind.”

Saner expects Mount Miguel, Morse, Madison, Sweetwater and Orange Glen to be the county’s top teams.

“You can’t put Poway against those teams right now,” he said. “We’re just not as good as those teams are . . . at this point in the season.

“We’ve got good kids coming up in this program. Poway could go on to be an awfully good team. It’s hard to win a 3-A title every year. It’s possible, but the odds are against it.”

But the odds were against Poway four years ago when Saner was faced with similar circumstances.

“The key (then) was development,” Saner said. “That team developed very quickly and they kept developing.

“Do we have the same potential this year? We’ll see.”

The team that may dominate this season, according to Saner and several other coaches around the county, is Mount Miguel, which has with all but one of its starters returning.

Mount Miguel’s football team could have an impact on the basketball season, however. Seven of the Matadors’ returning basketball players, including starters Anthony Rivera, Haywood Mathis and Gus Lopez, are on the football team, which is still competing in the playoffs. Mount Miguel begins league basketball play Tuesday and, Coach Art Edge says, if the football team survives its semifinal playoff game against Fallbrook this weekend, it’s possible his team could start the season 0-4.

“On paper we should have a great team,” Edge said. “But the number of players on the football team will definitely be a factor. I would certainly like to see (Mount Miguel) win a football title, but I don’t want (the basketball team) to suffer too much.”