I can’t be exactly sure when I met Andrew Saris for the first time. From our very first conversation, it felt like I’d known him for years.
It must have been in the spring of 2014. He was the track coach at Madison and I was working on a feature story about Frank Douglas, a three-time state placer in the 300-meter hurdles who went on to a stellar collegiate career at Eastern Michigan.
I was fairly new to the track beat and I think Andrew could sense it. He gave me a crash course during the 82nd Mehock Relays.
“The 300s are a man’s game,” Saris told me on that sun-splashed afternoon at Malabar. “It’s the hardest event in high school track.”
Conversations with Andrew were always candid and they always came easy. I will miss them very much.
Saris passed away unexpectedly at his home Tuesday afternoon, according to the Richland County coroner’s office. He was 39.
Andrew graduated from Smithville High School and was a member of the 2002 state runner-up football team, facts I wouldn’t learn until he took the head football coaching position at Lexington in 2022.
I graduated from Hillsdale, another Wayne County Athletic League school, and we would occasionally talk about how Smithville put the WCAL on the map.
Andrew didn’t care to talk about his individual accomplishments all that much, at least not to me. So when Brent Besancon took over as Madison’s head football coach in 2023, I thought I could get a better picture of Saris the player from a reliable source.
Besancon and Chuck Saris, Andrew’s father, served on Keith Schrock’s coaching staff at Smithville for years. Besancon was the Smithies’ secondary coach and Andrew was an All-Ohio defensive back.
It was clear the relationship the two men shared extended beyond the field.
“There’s not too much that goes on in our lives that the other doesn’t know about,” Besancon said at the time. “I am very proud of Andrew.”
In addition to coaching the Madison track program, Andrew was an assistant football coach for the Rams before taking over at Lex. He got his start under Sean Conway, who stepped away from coaching in 2014 and is still the high school principal.
“Andrew dedicated many years of service to Madison as an outstanding teacher and coach, positively impacting countless students and colleagues through his leadership, passion and unwavering commitment to our school community,” Conway said in a statement released late Tuesday night.
“While Andrew’s accomplishments as an educator and coach were remarkable, those who knew him best will remember him most for the kind of person he was — a loyal friend, a compassionate mentor and someone who genuinely cared for others.”
North central Ohio’s young people couldn’t have asked for a better advocate. Andrew would go to bat for any of them, regardless of the jersey they wore.
“Coach Saris meant the world to me and my family,” said Michigan State tight end Joe Caudill, who quarterbacked the Minutemen to an Ohio Cardinal Conference championship last fall.
“He has had such an impact on my life and I will forever be grateful for him.
“Coach always had the biggest smile in the room and he would always put others before himself. Me and my family are absolutely heart-broken for the Saris family and the community,” Caudill said.
Andrew leaves behind a wife and two young children. His postgame interviews were often delayed as his responsibilities as being a father trumped his media obligations.
“Sorry for making you wait,” he would say, even though no apology was necessary.
Perhaps his greatest virtue was his compassion. It was on full display in Lexington’s season-ending playoff loss to Toledo Central Catholic.
Lexington’s Avery Crawford suffered a serious leg injury early in the game and Saris couldn’t hide his emotions afterward.
“My heart goes out to Avery Crawford,” he said through tears.
Crawford and Caudill were among the 20 seniors on Lexington’s roster last fall. They were freshmen when Saris took the job.
“This is a really special group,” Andrew said. “They’ve got a soft spot in my heart.”
It is said the true measure of a man is in the lives he’s touched. Andrew’s selflessness touched more lives than he could have known.
One of his assistants at Lexington was Jamie Masi, also the high school principal. Saris was the dean of students at the high school.
“He always put the kids and the team first,” Masi said. “It wasn’t about wins and losses, although he was extremely successful. It was more about how the kids were being treated and what he could do to help them.
“He had such a big heart.”
Andrew was a member of Masi’s coaching staff at Madison from 2015 to 2017. The roles were reversed when Saris took over at Lexington, where Masi serves as defensive coordinator.
“I’ve coached for more than three decades and 12 of those years I’ve coached alongside Andrew Saris,” Masi said.
“Twelve years of great friendship. He’s going to be so missed by everybody.”
