Arizona State hockey players want coach put on leave, dispute schools account of teammates collapse

Seven players on the Arizona State University hockey team have called on the school’s president to put the coaching staff on administrative leave and allow outside investigators to probe the workout that left defender Matthew Mayich on life support with no chance of recovery. The damning 26-page letter, obtained by several media outlets, was sent to university president Michael Crow by seven current players and disputed numerous findings by ASU’s internal review of the Aug.20 workout and alleges that head coach Greg Powers downplayed the severity of Mayich’s situation. The letter disputes that Mayich received proper hydration during the workout and claims he did not receive adequate medical care after he collapsed. It also states that Powers had downplayed Mayich’s condition to ASU players initially, allegedly saying that he only needed an IV after suffering “just a little head stroke,” according to The Athletic.The letter was sent to the university anonymously through attorney Tim Casey due to concerns that players would face retaliation from Powers and his coaching staff, and it noted that additional teammates also wanted to share their views on the situation but feared retaliation.“We should not have to choose between telling the truth about August 20 and keeping what we have worked our whole lives for,” the players wrote.“These guys saw a friend and teammate go down.

And now he’s in a vegetative state and he’s not going to recover.They want the truth to come out,” Casey told ESPN separately from the letter.

“They want to make sure this never happens again.”Mayich collapsed on Aug.20 following a preseason workout conducted by Tim Ziesel, an ex-Green Beret, and suffered exertional heat stroke that caused a lack of oxygen to reach his brain, his family attorney Rob Carey explained. Mayich, who had transferred to ASU from Clarkson University, did not have any preexisting medical conditions. An internal review found that the coachi...