Breaking: Freshman Zach Peters to leave Kansas basketball team
Members of the Kansas Jayhawks cellar-dwelling football team are apparently not the only athletes on campus forced to deal with major head injuries.
Zach Peters, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound freshman out of Plano, Texas, was a four-time member of the all-state team and was expected to contribute heavily off the bench right away as a Jayhawk.
However, not only has he dealt with an injury to his rotator cuff, but Peters has sustained four concussions since his senior year of high school, including two since his arrival at Kansas.
Peters went home to Planto over the school’s Thanksgiving break and talked the situation over with his family. His injuries had kept him out of most of Kansas’ fall practices and were threatening to end his career altogether.
“I hate that this is happening,” Peters said. “With all the injuries, including the concussions, that I’ve dealt with lately, I feel like in order for me to move on and be able to get over all this, I need to go home and basically heal.”
Jayhawks coach Bill Self is a national champion and a class act. In such a situation as Peters has been forced to deal with, Self understands the importance of his young recruit taking the appropriate mindset towards the game of basketball. Basically, basketball is exactly that — a game — and Peters cannot risk any type of serious brain damage simply for the game.
“We have had numerous contacts with his family about this and we are all in total agreement that before Zach could move forward with any type of athletic endeavors, he needs to be in a situation where he can address his health issues,” Self said.
Peters informed Self the Monday following Thanksgiving weekend of the decision he unfortunately had to make.
“This is unfortunate for Zach and our team,” Self continued. “I personally thought that Zach had a chance to be a very good player at the University of Kansas. It’s a shame that these health issues have kept him from doing so.”
Both Rock Chalk Nation and we here at Gamedayr Nation wish Peters all the best in recovering enough to get back out on the basketball court and chase his dreams.
Quotes from SI.com, ESPN.com were used in this report
Latest from the Injury Front >> Florida State star defensive end tears ACL, out for season
