PROVO — During his eight years at BYU, basketball coach Dave Rose has enjoyed plenty of successes. Among those are the signing of Garner Meads — a heavily recruited, highly touted McDonald's All-America out of Brighton High — five years ago.
"One of the biggest highlights, for me personally, was when he decided to come here," Rose said. "We were trying to rebuild the program. It was a really big deal when he decided to be a Cougar."
However, it appears that after only two seasons, Meads' playing days as a Cougar are over.
This week, the oft-injured Meads opted to discontinue his playing career at BYU for health reasons. On Thursday, he met with his teammates and told them his decision. While Meads will remain enrolled at BYU, the 6-foot-8 forward won't be wearing a Cougar uniform next season.
In a prepared statement, Meads, who has suffered a multitude of injuries during his career, said he made the decision after meeting with Rose, his parents and his fiancee, Julie Cameron, who is a member of BYU's track and cross country teams.
"All parties involved felt that the decision made was best for both the program and myself," Meads said in the statement. "This is a critical time for BYU's basketball program. The players are working extremely hard and making a lot of progress. There is a great sense of urgency within the program to bring it back to the level it has been at in the past. My current physical condition needs additional time to recover, and at this point in my eligibility, there is not sufficient time."
Meads stressed that his decision has nothing to do with recent coaching changes. In April, Rose replaced Steve Cleveland, who bolted BYU for Fresno State. "BYU has been, and I am confident always will be, a great place to play the game of basketball," Meads said. "If anything, the current changes have only made it harder for me to come to this decision in that there is a renewed excitement and energy within the program among coaches and players that undoubtedly will bring success to BYU basketball."
Meads also apologized for not living up to the enormous expectations that come with being a McDonald's All-America. "I offer my sincere apology to those who had hoped my career at BYU would result in something other than what it has," he said.
Rose and Meads had been discussing his health status for some time.
"It's disappointing more than anything," Rose said. "Injuries are a difficult thing to deal with in sports. It's frustrating for him, the coaches, his teammates and the fans. Everyone wants the players to perform at the highest level. I feel for Garner. I hope he can get healed."
Meads' departure from the program leaves a major void, Rose said. "It's very difficult replacing Garner and what we thought he'd do for our program. It's always disappointing when you lose a player early."
Back in 2000, amid an intense recruiting battle for his services, Meads entertained offers from BYU, Stanford, Utah, Kentucky, Syracuse, UCLA, Arizona and Notre Dame. In the end, he chose BYU over Stanford and Utah.
But injuries have plagued him ever since.
Before enrolling, following a stellar career at Brighton, Meads underwent knee surgery that limited his playing until late summer. Then, during the first week of practice at BYU, he suffered a punctured lung, which resulted in him redshirting. Meads left for an LDS Church mission to Canada following his first year at BYU.
When he returned, he started 18 games as a redshirt freshman in 2003-04 despite playing with injuries. He was part of a Cougar squad that won 21 games and nearly knocked off Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Meads' future, indeed, looked bright.
Injuries, however, continued to hamper his progress, causing him discomfort and frustration.
Not long after returning from his mission, Meads said he developed bilateral tears in the lower abdominal muscles. "These tears went undetected for nearly 13 months, during which time I continued to play despite at times severe pain," he said.
Once the severity of the injury was discovered by BYU doctors, Meads traveled to Philadelphia last June for a surgery performed by Dr. William Meyers, who specializes in such cases. "The surgery revealed that the tears were worse than expected," Meads said.
He spent most of the offseason trying to rehabilitate. Once his sophomore season began last November, he had not fully recovered and, as a result, he ended up suffering more injuries — a stress fracture in his left foot and a torn quadriceps muscle. Those injuries ended his season prematurely. He played in only 18 games, averaging 17.3 minutes, 4.3 rebounds and 4.4 points per contest.
"Following the completion of last season I began the rehabilitative process again, however the progress has been slower than was hoped for," Meads said. "After consulting with family, coaches and doctors it was decided that if proper time and care was not given to ensure full recovery, I was putting myself at risk of permanent damage."
Rose praised Meads for everything he has contributed to the program. "He's done a lot for us," he said. "He's a great person. He's perfect for our program. He's a very good student and he represented our program as well as anybody could. It's a situation where he's a competitor and he has an unbelievable desire to compete and win. We hoped he could get back to that point."
Should Meads regain his health, could he return to the basketball court? "Right now, he's concerned about getting healthy," Rose said. "He hasn't felt right for a year-and-a-half. If he does fully recover, he'll decide from there."
As for BYU's program, the loss of Meads frees up a scholarship. The Cougars could sign another player or give it to a player who is already in the program. Rose said it's too early to know what he will do with it.
"We've always had scholarship issues here," he said. "We'll put the best team we can together for this year. We're always recruiting. We'll do everything we can to make the team better. It's too early to speculate."
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com