Coach fired after recruiting player facing sex charges

U of S vows to launch thorough review of athlete screening and recruitment

Saying that the school and its athletic programs expect its leaders to be accountable in their roles, the University of Saskatchewan has fired men’s volleyball head coach Brian Gavlas after he admitted he knew a recruit was facing a sexual assault charge in Alberta when the player joined the team last season.

On Monday in Medicine Hat Court of Queen’s Bench, Matthew Alan Meyer was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to a January 2016 sexual assault. When the Prince Albert native joined the Huskies in the 201718 season, the charge had been laid but not yet proven in court.

Gavlas said this week that he “was aware of the charge” prior to Meyer joining the team and that he and Meyer “had talked briefly about the situation” but “didn’t go into a lot of detail.”

In a statement released late Thursday, Huskie Athletics chief athletics officer Shawn Burt and Dean of Kinesiology Chad London said they became aware of Meyer’s conviction on Tuesday. After immediately removing Meyer from the team, Gavlas was fired on Thursday.

“We are committed to providing a safe campus environment. The situation raised significant concerns as to how the player was allowed to become a Huskie athlete,” Burt and London said in the statement.

They said the school will launch “a thorough review to examine our processes related to the screening and recruitment of student athletes, and the policies related to the conduct of our employees, to ensure that they live up to the values of Huskie Athletics and the University of Saskatchewan.”

A former star player with the Huskies, Gavlas took over as head coach in 1992, winning two national titles and four Canada West championships during his years at the helm. Meyer “made a very bad choice and decision with his actions and what he did for one night. And it’s cost him dearly,” Gavlas said earlier this week.

“It’s obviously cost the victim. Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not being flippant about that situation. But I think people who are in my position have to do everything they can to give young adults and teenagers an opportunity to grow and develop and improve on their character and improve on their choices and improve on their lifestyles, whatever the case is.

“So anything that we can do to help support those people I think is pretty important.”

A perspective like that illustrates the need to change the conversation, Minister of Advanced Education Tina Beaudry-Mellor said on Thursday, because it is “reflective of an overall attitude that I think is really problematic” when talking about sexual assault.

“I think the comments by the coach are disturbing because they trivialize what happened to the victim and they, I would say, have overstated the impact on the perpetrator. That’s completely backwards,” she said.

Meyer pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a Medicine Hat College student at a house party on Jan. 17, 2016, the Medicine Hat News reported.

He also admitted photographing her during the assault, pleading guilty to voyeurism. At the time, Meyer was a member of the college’s volleyball team.

According to an agreed statement of facts, the victim had been drinking at a party at a college residence and was nearly passed out when a friend laid her down on the living room couch to sleep, the Medicine Hat News reported. She woke hours later with Meyer masturbating on top of her and penetrating her with his fingers and penis, all without consent.

Investigators found 147 images on Meyer’s phone — some taken during the incident when the complainant awoke, and others from an earlier assault against her that took place when she was passed out, court heard.

Beaudry-Mellor acknowledged due process when asked if she felt any student with a criminal record or facing criminal charges should not be allowed to play at a Saskatchewan post-secondary institution.

“The issue here is whether or not a coach overlooks these kinds of situations and recruits a player regardless. Due process is important. As I understand it, the athlete in question had not yet been (convicted) and so I think in the best interest of all victims, we need to make sure that due process is followed. But those were very, very serious charges,” she said.

“At the very minimum, you should hold off on recruiting an athlete until you find out whether or not those charges will be upheld. I think that’s important given the stature of varsity athletics.”