At Navy, Commitment Is for Meek
Following Illness, Tackle Reaches Goal With Mids

By Christian Swezey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 30, 2007

Josh Meek's dream of playing division I-A football did not seem further away than the time he enrolled at North Texas and, instead of playing football, got a full-time job as a waiter.

Meek has since made good on his goal: He will start at left tackle for Navy tomorrow against Army. A 6-foot-1, 274-pound senior, Meek has started the past two years at tackle. The Midshipmen lead the nation in rushing with a school-record 357.4 yards per game (the previous mark was 323.2 set in 2003).

They also led the nation in rushing in 2005 and '06.

Being part of such success seemed a long way off for Meek in the summer of 2003. Meek had committed to attend the Naval Academy Prep School following his senior year at Flower Mound High near Dallas.

But on the early July day midshipmen were to report to NAPS -- called Induction Day, or "I-Day" -- Meek was headed to a Dallas area hospital.

For weeks, Meek had been suffering from slurred speech and an inability to walk or eat much. Initially, doctors told his mother they feared he had had a stroke. He moved into the bedroom on the first floor of the family's home because he was unable to walk up the stairs to his bedroom.

Late in the summer of 2003 he had mononucleosis diagnosed; the slurred speech was attributed to swelling at the base of his brain. By the time Meek recovered, he had lost 40 pounds, the Naval Academy had rescinded his acceptance and he was considering attending Texas A&M and not playing football.

"He had always had the best attitude, but [following his illness] he seemed really angry," said his mother, Laurie Meek. "He went through a lot of soul-searching."

Meek enrolled at nearby University of North Texas and, on the advice of a counselor at the Naval Academy, took the hardest courses he could find. While he regained his weight, he worked as a waiter at a local restaurant.

With his weight back, another decision faced Meek: whether to reapply to Navy. His then-girlfriend (now fiancee) attended Texas A&M, and he said he considered going there.

"My fiancee and dad and mom talked to me about the decision," Meek said. "They kept saying [Navy] was too good of an opportunity to pass up."

So Meek reapplied and enrolled at the academy in the summer of 2004.

His high school's biggest rival, nearby Marcus High, featured a Navy commitment too. Fullback Adam Ballard said he got to know Meek when the two competed against each other at track meets.

"He was supposed to be in the same platoon as me at NAPS," Ballard said. "When he didn't show up for I-Day, and then after boot camp . . . I just figured he'd decided not to come."

Meek's football career had an unusual start. He was 5-9 and 185 pounds when he was a freshman at Flower Mound. By the time he was a senior, he had grown to 6-1, 255, and had played every position along the offensive line, including tight end. He was named the team's most valuable player as a senior and chose Navy over offers from Army and Rice.

His introduction to Navy football was another challenge. Flower Mound had run its offense out of the shotgun formation. Navy's option-based offense is almost the exact opposite.

"It probably took me two years to understand this offense," Meek said. "Someone like [center] Antron [Harper], it took him maybe 10 minutes. But when [offensive line coach] Ken Niumatalolo started talking about the offense and the offensive line when I was a freshman, I thought he was speaking in Greek."

This season included a return to North Texas for Meek; Navy won, 74-62, in the highest-scoring non-overtime game in NCAA division I-A history. The offense's output that day was the good news. The bad news was that, to mark Meek's homecoming, his stepmother designed giant posters with Meek's likeness on them.

"Josh hates being in the spotlight," Laurie Meek said. "His personality really fits being on the offensive line; he doesn't want any glory. . . . He was a little concerned about the hoopla, but we told him this was for us, that we have to have a good time with our kids and he didn't have a choice."