Greg Powers coached Arizona State hockey for a decade and a half, took the program from club to Division I, and signed an extension through 2030 at $450,000 a year. On Sept. 30 he went on paid administrative leave, 41 days after a preseason workout left sophomore defenseman Matthew Mayich on life support with no chance of meaningful recovery. The delay is the indictment.
Mayich, 21, a St. Louis Blues sixth-round pick who transferred from Clarkson and arrived on campus around Aug. 12, collapsed near the end of an Aug. 20 outdoor session at Sun Angel Stadium. Core temperature at the hospital: 107.5 degrees. Exertional heat stroke. Irreversible neurological damage. No pre-existing conditions, according to family attorney Rob Carey. The session was the first day NCAA rules allowed formal team activity. Temperature sat in the mid-to-high 80s. A former Green Beret named Tim Ziesel ran calisthenics and medicine-ball work under a handshake arrangement. No contract with the university. No training plan submitted to strength and conditioning. Powers and his staff were present. An assistant athletic trainer was present. Cold immersion tub: absent, despite heat-period policy. Subsequent planned days got canceled. The kid never got a second chance to acclimate.
The Review That Named No One Responsible
ASU’s internal timeline, released Sept. 21-22 under Senior Vice President James Rund, interviewed roughly 20 people and managed the neat trick of documenting every procedural miss without assigning responsibility. Coaching staff failed to submit the plan. Ziesel operated without a contract. Heat guidelines took hits. Then the university promised a blue-ribbon panel for future outdoor work with outside consultants and moved on. No blame. No leave. No pause.
Powers finally spoke Sept. 23 at NCHC media day, declined questions about Aug. 20, and called ASU “still a great place to be” while presenting himself as the right man for the job. The program opened the season without him because seven players refused to let that posture stand.
Seven Signatures Forced What the Administration Would Not
On Sept. 28 those seven athletes, about a quarter of the roster, sent a 26-page letter through attorney Tim Casey to President Michael Crow. They disputed the Rund findings point by point: water break timing and availability, earlier distress signs they say went ignored, post-collapse care that left Mayich in the sun without a tub or a temperature reading by staff, inadequate acclimatization. They alleged Powers downplayed the condition. They demanded the entire involved coaching staff go on leave pending an independent investigation, protections against retaliation on playing time and scholarships, and an outside agency for the police probe. Two state legislators wrote the Board of Regents the same day seeking the same independence and witness cover. Mayich’s parents, John and Christina, backed the players. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego later called for an independent probe. Athletic director Graham Rossini met with the roster. Then, and only then, Powers went on leave.
Rossini framed it as program stability and support for the Mayich family and the student-athletes as the season tipped. Assistant Mike Corbett, present at the workout and on staff the past two seasons, draws the opening two games at Lindenwood while the university hunts an interim. The NCHC backed the leave and put student-athlete well-being first. Carey called the move insufficient: only Powers, while longtime associate Alex Hicks and others remain, with retaliation risk still live. ASU PD’s investigation continues, findings headed to the Maricopa County Attorney. The university review grinds on. No charges. No final findings. Corbett coaches. Powers collects a check. Mayich does not improve.
This is what college hockey’s safety culture looks like when the first response is an internal document that clears the room and the second response is a coach insisting the place is still great while a drafted defenseman lies non-responsive in a neurological unit. Powers built the Sun Devils. That resume now sits next to a 41-day gap between collapse and leave, a Green Beret with no contract, a missing cold tub, and a player letter that had to do the work the administration would not. Legacy is not the extension through 2030. Legacy is whether a program that waited for seven anonymous signatures ever gets to call itself serious about the kids it recruits into 86-degree mornings.
The season starts anyway. Matthew Mayich’s condition does not.
