Arizona State put hockey coach Greg Powers on leave after player Matthew Mayich collapsed from heatstroke and now has almost no chance of recovery, his family's attorney says.
Arizona State University moved Wednesday to place men's hockey coach Greg Powers on leave after 21-year-old forward Matthew Mayich collapsed during an Aug. 20 outdoor team workout and remains hospitalized on life support.
Family attorney Rob Carey says Mayich is incapacitated, with almost no chance of recovery, after what he called a preventable heatstroke. The school’s athletic director framed the coaching change as a bid for program stability while an investigation continues.
Mayich, a St. Louis Blues draft pick from Hamilton, Ontario, had been in Arizona only eight days and in the hockey program five days when he went down. What should have been a routine summer session left a young athlete fighting for a miracle and a university facing hard questions about heat, water, and who was watching the players.
On Tuesday, parents John and Christina Mayich and seven unnamed teammates called for the coaches involved in the workout to be placed on leave and for an independent investigation. The New York Post reported the parents’ message to the program: they want the team to have a great season and will cheer for it, but the coaches who ran the Aug. 20 workout need to be removed while an outside probe gets to the truth.
Carey told NBC News the family has said “since day one” that the entire coaching staff needed administrative leave. He called Powers’ leave a step in the right direction, then warned that player safety remains at risk and “retaliation is still possible” with an assistant still in place whom he described as close to the head coach.
“They did nothing right, literally nothing,” Carey said. “And as a result [of] what should have been a very preventable workout problem, heatstroke, a man is on life support and unlikely to come off of it.”
He added that Mayich is incapacitated, with almost no chance of recovery, but the family is devout and wants to give their son a chance for a miracle. That kind of sudden sports tragedy hits with the same force families felt when hockey lost a defining voice in Barry Melrose, a reminder that the game’s human costs do not wait for the schedule.
Seven players sent a 26-page letter to ASU President Michael Crow. They said they feared retaliation because coaches “decide our playing time, scholarship levels, and roster status.”
According to the letter’s account in reporting, the session was led by Tim Ziesel, an Army veteran and former Green Beret. Players alleged the workout lacked required emergency gear on site, including a cooling tub, and that a training plan had not been submitted to all the coaches. They said a water break lasted only seconds and that Mayich, among several players who did not reach the water in time, got none before being “pushed directly into the next task.”
Breitbart reported the players put the water break 35 to 45 minutes in, lasting only seconds, and wrote that Mayich showed visible distress in earlier drills with no proper monitoring or intervention. “No one at ASU properly monitored him during the workout, and no one intervened,” the players wrote. They also alleged Ziesel left before Mayich collapsed and that Powers later called the collapse “just a little heat stroke” of a type he had seen before.
The temperature fight is stark. Players cited National Weather Service data showing an afternoon high of 104 degrees and a low of 74, and said the university’s figures “understate conditions on the field.” ASU’s report put workout temperatures between 86 and 89 degrees, with relative humidity between 51% and 46%.
ASU said an athletic trainer evaluated Mayich, applied cool water and iced towels, told him to stay down, called 911, and directed athletes to move him into the shade. The players’ letter rejects the idea that the response matched the danger on the ground.
Athletic director Graham Rossini announced the leave after what he called thorough deliberation. “We have continued to collect as much information as possible. After thorough and careful deliberation, I believe this is the best move to provide stability for the hockey program,” he said.
Fox News reported Powers was placed on paid administrative leave as the investigation continues, with Mayich described as having been in a coma and having “zero chance of recovery.” Rossini also said the focus “continues to be on Matthew and his family” and on giving student-athletes “the support they need during this time and as the season begins.”
An ASU spokesperson said university police have an open and ongoing investigation. No arrests have been announced. Assistant coach Mike Corbett will lead the team for the season opener this weekend, with an interim head coach to be named soon.
Young athletes cut down without warning leave the same hollow space families know from cases like British cyclist Finlay Tarling’s fatal crash at 19, promise interrupted, and adults left to answer for the conditions that allowed it.
Ziesel’s attorney, Buddy Rake, said his client has offered to meet privately with the Mayich family and “thinks a full and complete investigation should be done.” Rake argued the cause still has to be found, adding that thousands of high school athletes in Arizona do comparable work in the heat without the same outcome, so either the protocol is wrong “or there’s something else that happened.”
Carey has been blunt that oxygen deprivation to the brain left Mayich without real recovery prospects. Christina Mayich, in an earlier Canadian Broadcasting Company interview, said her son “was so excited to come to ASU” and called the facilities even better in person than on YouTube. She asked for prayers and said the family is taking it “day by day.”
Serious harm under official watch always demands the same thing prosecutors chase when a body is recovered and investigators take over: a clear record of who did what, when, and whether the rules on paper matched the ground that day.
Mayich suffered exertional heatstroke tied to a lack of oxygen to the brain, per Carey’s account to reporters. He had barely arrived in the desert. Teammates say water was rationed by the clock and by pace. The university’s numbers and the players’ National Weather Service citation do not line up. Emergency cooling gear the players say was required was, in their telling, not there.
Powers is on leave. An assistant remains. Corbett will handle the opener. Police say the investigation is open. The family and seven players asked for an outside investigator and broader staff leave. Carey says retaliation fear has not left the locker room.
Universities sell elite facilities and high-level coaching. They also own the duty to keep 21-year-olds alive in August heat. When a Blues prospect from Ontario ends up on life support after a team workout, the record has to show more than process language and a single coaching change.
Protecting players is not optional branding. It is the minimum adults owe the kids who show up ready to work.