ASU parts ways with hockey coach as player who collapsed at workout remains hospitalized

Arizona State University announced Thursday that it has reached a “mutual agreement to part ways” with hockey coach Greg Powers, nearly two months after 21-year-old sophomore Matthew Mayich collapsed during a workout and had to be put on life support.

“The university and Sun Devil Athletics are grateful for Coach Powers’ work to establish ASU as a Division I hockey program and for his service over the past nearly two decades,” ASU said in a statement.

The school said it has hired Dave Hakstol as head hockey coach. Hakstol had previously been an assistant coach for the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL.

Powers was placed on paid administrative leave late last month, after the parents of Mayich and several teammates demanded that the staff responsible for the workout that led to Mayich’s collapse be removed while an investigation is conducted.

Mayich was participating in an outdoor workout on Aug. 20 when he suffered heatstroke, according to Robert Carey, an attorney for his family. Carey has said Mayich was placed on life support and is “unlikely to recover,” according to CBS affiliate KPHO-TV.

Seven of his teammates later alleged in an anonymous letter that the school’s description of the workout was inaccurate, claiming that Mayich was not given any water breaks and had shown signs of distress before the final exercise, during which he collapsed. They also said required emergency equipment, like cold-water immersion tubs, wasn’t on the field.

The school has asked former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Scott Bales to oversee the independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mayich’s collapse, KPHO-TV reported.

“Our focus remains where it has been since August 20, on Matthew, and making sure what happened to him is fully understood and never happens to another player,” Mayich’s family said in a statement Thursday. “It seems more like a negotiated agreement than accountability, and so we believe Justice Bales’s investigation must continue with its full scope, gathering all digital evidence and covering everyone involved in that morning’s workout and in approving it, and its findings must be made public. Coach Powers’s departure should not limit his cooperation or anyone else’s, and the players who have spoken up must be protected.”

Powers previously said in a statement when he was placed on leave that he intends to cooperate fully with the independent investigation into the incident.

The workout, which the students say was run by an outside consultant named Tim Ziesel, was described in the letter as “grueling” and “military-style.”

Ziesel, in a statement released by his attorney, said, “There is no such thing as a military style workout other than calisthenics done to a cadence.”

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