Arizona State University announced Wednesday that it has placed hockey coach Greg Powers on leave following player Matthew Mayich’s collapse during a summer team practice. Mayich, 21, remains on life support and is unlikely to recover, according to family attorney Rob Carey.
In response to the announcement, Carey said in an interview with NBC Nightly News that the family had said “since day one” that the entire coaching staff should be placed on administrative leave. ASU left in place another assistant coach who is good friends with the head coach “and that needs to change,” the attorney said.
“They didn’t do anything right, literally nothing,” Carey said of ASU’s coaching staff during practice. “And because of what should have been a very preventable training problem, heat stroke, a man is on life support and is unlikely to make it,” he said.
“He is incapacitated and there is almost no chance of recovery. But the family is very pious and they want to give their son a chance to perform a miracle,” Carey said.
ASU did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News on the family’s allegations and requests for an independent investigation.
But in his announcement about Powers’ leave, ASU athletic director Graham Rossini said the school “continues to focus on Matthew and his family” and all student-athletes, to ensure they have “the support they need during this time and as the season begins.”
“We have continued to gather as much information as possible. After extensive and careful deliberations, I believe this is the best decision to ensure the stability of the hockey program,” Rossini said.
Assistant coach Mike Corbett will lead the team this weekend for the season opener and an interim head coach would be named soon, according to the release.
Mayich collapsed during an outdoor training session on August 20. He suffered extreme heat stroke and has been hospitalized since collapsing.
Mayich’s parents, John and Christina Mayich, and seven other players on the hockey team called Tuesday for the coaches involved to be placed on leave and for an independent investigation.
The seven players, who did not release their names, submitted a letter through their attorney to ASU President Michael Crow disputing the school’s account of what happened.
In the letter, the players said they were afraid of facing retaliation because coaches “decide our playing time, scholarship levels and team status.”
Although Carey said putting Powers on leave is a step in the right direction, he said there are players whose safety remains at risk and “retaliation is always possible.”
The athletes’ 26-page letter describes a workout led by Tim Ziesel, an Army veteran and former Green Beret, on a day when the afternoon high temperature was 104 degrees and the low was 74, according to National Weather Service data. The players claimed in their letter that Zeisel left before Mayich collapsed.
According to the players, the training did not include the emergency equipment required on site, including a water tray for cooling off, and no training plan was submitted to all coaches.
In its report, ASU said temperatures were between 86 and 89 degrees during practice, with relative humidity between 51% and 46%. The ASU report also said an athletic trainer assessed Mayich’s condition, put him on cool water and ice towels and told him to stay in bed; he then called 911 and asked the student-athletes to help him into the shade.
Buddy Rake, Ziesel’s attorney, said Ziesel offered to meet privately with Mayich’s family “and believes a full and thorough investigation should be conducted.”
“You have to find out what caused this. At the same time that this workout is happening, there are probably 5,000 high school athletes in Arizona doing the same workout and nothing is happening to them. So either the protocol is wrong or something else happened,” Rake said.
The players’ letter alleges that the university’s temperature and humidity figures “understate conditions on the field.”
The players noted that Mayich was new to Arizona, having spent only eight days in the area and having participated in the hockey program for five days. Drafted by the St. Louis Blues, Mayich is from Hamilton, Ontario, according to the NHL.
Players said Mayich did not have water during a break that lasted only seconds because he was one of several players who did not reach the water in time before being “pushed straight to the next task.”
The players said Powers characterized Mayich’s condition after his collapse as “just a little heatstroke” of the type he had seen before, according to their letter.
Carey said furloughing staff and hiring an outside investigator is fundamental when things like this happen.
In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation earlier this month, Mayich’s mother, Christina, said her son “was so excited to come to ASU — he said the facilities are even better live, because we watch it on YouTube and in photos and he just said it’s exciting.”
She said they were taking her son’s situation “day by day.”
“Anyone who could send prayers for Matthew, that would be greatly appreciated because that’s what we need right now,” Christina Mayich said.
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