ASU hockey report details Matthew Mayich’s collapse, assigns no blame

Arizona State University’s first account of the workout that left hockey player Matthew Mayich on life support traces the morning of Aug. 20 almost minute by minute.

It does not say who, if anyone, was responsible.

Instead, the report, released Monday proposes a panel of outside experts to recommend how the school should plan outdoor workouts, respond to emergencies and use outside consultants.

“It’s an absurdity because those recommendations already exist,” Leonard Aragon, an attorney for Mayich’s family, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Tuesday. “There were already policies that should have been followed. So the question should be, why weren’t those policies followed and who’s going to be punished for not following those policies when a young man is clinging to life in a hospital bed?”

What ASU’s report says

The report, written by Senior Vice President James Rund and addressed to ASU President Michael Crow, confirms that the hockey team’s coaches got permission for Timothy Ziesel, a former Green Beret, to speak to players.

The coaches never submitted his training plan to the school’s strength and conditioning staff for review.

Ziesel had no contract with ASU for the planned three-day team-building event, according to a timeline released with the report. A hockey program supporter introduced him to head coach Greg Powers in January, and Ziesel spoke to the team about leadership last season.

Rund wrote that the findings reflect what the university knows so far and could change as the review continues. Rund oversaw the hockey program before it became a Division I sport, The Athletic reported.

The morning of the workout

Mayich, a 21-year-old defenseman who transferred from Clarkson University, arrived in Tempe from Canada on Aug. 12. He passed a physical and completed three voluntary workouts before Aug. 20, the report says.

Players had been told to rest and hydrate. The team’s athletic trainer brought water and a cooler of iced towels to Sun Angel Stadium, where the workout ran from about 7 to 8:30 a.m. in temperatures of 86 to 89 degrees.

Players did calisthenics, pushups, planks and running. They got a water break about 20 minutes in, according to the report, which does not say how long the break lasted or whether every player drank.

Near the end, during a relay run with a medicine ball, Mayich struggled, dropped the ball and fell. He tried to get up and fell to his knees, the report says. He was responsive at first, but his condition worsened.

The trainer applied iced towels and cool water, called 911 and had players help move him into the shade, where she kept cooling him with a hose until paramedics arrived.

Mayich’s family attorneys previously told KTAR News 92.3 FM that he was not placed in an ice bath.

Ziesel has said through his attorney that he left before Mayich collapsed. The report does not say when he left.

What happens next

ASU police are investigating separately, as they would for any serious injury on campus, and will send their findings to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

Twenty people have been interviewed for the review or by police. Athletes were invited to talk but not required to.

Aragon said the number suggests few players have come forward.

“The students don’t feel safe,” he said.

Powers has not spoken publicly since the workout. He is scheduled to appear at a virtual news conference Wednesday as part of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference’s preseason media days.

The St. Louis Blues drafted Mayich in the sixth round of the 2023 NHL draft.

Mayich remains in stable but critical condition, Aragon said.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Kellen Shover contributed to this report.

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