Arizona State University placed head hockey coach Greg Powers on paid administrative leave after players requested he be removed pending an investigation into the recent collapse of defenseman Matthew Mayich.
The development, announced Wednesday, is the latest turn in a disturbing player-health controversy that could lead to legal action.
Mayich, 21, suffered a severe health complication during an ASU conditioning workout on Aug. 20. The St. Louis Blues’ sixth-round draft pick in 2023 reportedly experienced exertional heatstroke. Harvard Medical School describes this type of stroke as occurring “when someone is vigorously active in a hot environment” and “typically strikes young, otherwise healthy people, those least likely to be concerned about the effects of heat on their health … because of the lack of concern, early symptoms may be dismissed or ignored.”
Mayich remains hospitalized, and his family’s attorney, Robert Carey, said “the result here is about as severe as it gets short of death.”
The player reportedly suffered a catastrophic brain injury during the workout and has been described as unresponsive.
The workout has been described as a “military-style conditioning session” that occurred outside at ASU’s Sun Angel Stadium, with temperatures in the high 80s and the National Weather Service issuing an extreme heat warning. Sun Angel Stadium is the school’s track and field facility.
Players were allegedly required to run sprints and perform a variety of pushups, planks and other intense activities as part of a program designed by former Green Beret Tim Ziesel. ESPN has reported the program was not reviewed by ASU strength and conditioning staff. Carey, the family attorney, contends ASU coaches didn’t follow university guidelines regarding heat safety.
To that end, there are questions about whether Mayich and his teammates had access to sufficient water and the degree of attention ASU paid to his initial symptoms, including feeling dizzy.
ASU’s own report into the incident, which was based on interviews with about 20 people, says an athletic trainer was present and that coaches instructed players to hydrate properly. The report also indicates there were breaks for players to get water.
ASU police are investigating the practice. For now, at least, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell will not open a separate investigation, though she might provide resources.
The coach’s administrative leave
The placement of Powers on administrative leave removes him from his coaching duties and effectively separates him from the university without a finding of fault—yet.
The move could have several purposes. One is to remove an employee under suspicion of wrongdoing from possibly influencing a workplace investigation into his conduct. As head coach, Powers has significant influence over the hockey program and staffers who might have relevant information.
A second purpose of administrative leave is to ensure the employee is accorded due process and an opportunity to challenge accusations. As a public university, ASU will want to ensure its employment-related decisions are made through procedures that satisfy constitutional requirements. If Powers is denied a constitutional right and asserts he has been prejudged or is being made a scapegoat for other university officials, he could potentially use that against the school.
Powers also has an employment contract that likely affords him protection and the chance to contest accusations before he is terminated for cause. In such a firing, the school would determine Powers breached a duty, and the university could reduce or eliminate its financial obligations to him.
Potential legal fallout
It’s important to stress that no court has reviewed the facts, evidence and testimony, and that much of the available record is based on media reports and statements by interested parties, including Mayich’s family attorneys and ASU officials.
It’s also not certain that Mayich and his family will sue ASU, at least not in the immediate future. The current focus for all involved is likely ensuring that a young man with a promising future achieves as full of a recovery as possible. The school and the family could also reach a settlement before any lawsuit is filed.
If the family ultimately sues ASU, Arizona law would likely require compliance with special rules applicable to claims against public entities. Those rules generally require a notice of claim to be served within 180 days after the claim accrues and a lawsuit to be filed within one year.
If litigation does arise, it would likely be in the form of a negligence lawsuit. The central allegation would be that ASU had a duty of care to Mayich, that the school breached its own safety rules as well as those set by industry standards, and that the mistakes caused the injury. Powers and the players would be key witnesses, and the school might argue its removal of the coach shows school officials are responsive and proactive.
In litigation, expert witnesses, including former physicians, trainers, hockey coaches and hockey players, could all provide relevant testimony regarding safety and intensity expectations for practices—particularly those conducted so early in the season. To the extent that an outside, military-style workout in high temperatures is anomalous, ASU would need to persuasively explain why it thought this approach was sensible and how it evaluated and weighed safety concerns.
ASU would likely have several defenses, including an argument that, while Mayich’s injury is devastating, school officials acted reasonably under the circumstances. As a public university, ASU could also assert statutory governmental immunity, a legal doctrine protecting public entities from liability in certain circumstances, including some policy-level decisions. Whether that immunity applies to the way ASU implemented safety measures and responded to a player’s medical emergency could become a matter of dispute in court.
Heat-related injuries to college athletes have led to lawsuits against schools.
In 2018, Maryland football player Jordan McNair suffered an exertional heatstroke during a football conditioning workout. He died a couple of weeks later. The McNair family sued the school for negligence, among other claims, arguing it failed to meet its duties of care to McNair. The case accused school officials of unreasonably exposing McNair to the risk of heatstroke, failing to recognize the initial symptoms and inadequately providing medical care and treatment, thus worsening McNair’s condition. The case was resolved through a settlement reportedly worth $3.5 million.
Other football players whose deaths after collapsing during conditioning sessions led to negligence lawsuits against their schools include Dale Lloyd II, whose family settled with Rice University in 2009, and Ereck Plancher, whose family won their case against the University of Central Florida in 2011. Both Lloyd and Plancher experienced complications of sickle cell trait.
Impact to ASU’s program
Arizona State made the move to Division I hockey in 2015, a geographic outlier. Following the termination of Alabama-Huntsville’s team in 2021, the Sun Devils remain the only true warm-weather program in top-tier college hockey. They currently compete in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which includes teams as far away as Ohio and North Dakota.
The transition to Division I was funded by $32 million in donor funds, including a chunk from Don Mullett, whose name currently graces the program’s home arena. Powers has been the head coach since that move, and Arizona State has spent lavishly by college hockey standards.
During the 2018–19 season, when the team made its first and only NCAA tournament, Arizona State reported a men’s hockey budget of about $3.5 million, the 12th-highest total in the country, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. For the 2024–25 season, the most recent year available, it was $6.2 million, ranking fifth nationally.
That same year, Arizona State told the NCAA its men’s hockey head coach was paid $503,680 in salary, benefits and bonuses. Powers is the sixth-highest-paid head coach on campus, trailing those atop the football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and men’s golf programs.
