PHOENIX – Arizona State’s decision to place hockey coach Greg Powers on paid administrative leave Wednesday comes at a time of growing concern that the university has not commissioned an independent investigation into the workout that left a player on life support.

Defenseman Matthew Mayich collapsed during an Aug. 20 training exercise and remains in a Valley hospital where his family has kept vigil.

ASU, which opens its season Friday at Lindenwood, announced Wednesday that assistant coach Mike Corbett will lead the team. Corbett was one of the ASU staff members present during the Aug. 20 workout that left Mayich on life support, attorneys for the family said.  The university said it would name an interim head coach soon.

“I support the University’s decision to place me on administrative leave while the circumstances surrounding the August 20 workout are reviewed,” Powers said in a statement. “I believe this will allow the review to proceed thoroughly, independently and without distraction.”

Mayich’s collapse is not the first college sports case to raise questions about intense workouts and the subsequent actions by staff. Maryland faced a similar tragedy but responded differently.

In 2018, Terrapins offensive lineman Jordan McNair collapsed during an outdoor football workout after struggling through a series of 110-yard sprints. He died two weeks later from heatstroke.

Three weeks later, Maryand commissioned an independent investigation and hired Rod Walters, a nationally recognized sports medicine consultant. 

A Walters Inc. independent evaluation said Maryland’s conditioning procedures generally met standards but raised concerns about acclimatization and fitness testing, and said the staff failed to quickly diagnose and properly treat heatstroke. As with Mayich, athletic staff at Maryland  did not use cold water immersion for cooling.

In a Sept. 18 essay in the Guardian, McNair’s father wrote that he saw “unsettling parallels” between his son’s case and Mayich’s.

“During a strenuous early-season workout, the athlete’s level of distress wasn’t properly recognized,” Martin McNair wrote in the essay, co-authored by Dr. Simon Fitzgerald, a trauma surgeon advising a foundation the family created. “The escalation from heat exhaustion to exertional heatstroke wasn’t appropriately addressed. The emergency action plan was not properly practiced or implemented. The lifesaving cooling response wasn’t initiated within that critical window.”

The father added a question he wished he had asked in time: “Who has the authority to stop a workout when an athlete is in medical distress?”

More than two years after McNair’s death, Maryland agreed to a settlement with his family totaling $3.5 million, according to ESPN.

Calls are growing for ASU to commission an independent investigation.

James Rund, the university’s senior vice president for educational outreach and student services, has led a review and issued an initial report on Sept. 21. 

ASU police are conducting a separate investigation. ASU said the police findings will eventually go to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for review.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said her office would not open a separate investigation while the ASU police investigation is still ongoing.

“While I cannot say that I will open an entirely new investigation,” Mitchell told AZCentral, “what I can tell you is that we will make sure that we are satisfied that all appropriate investigative steps have been taken, and all evidence gathered.”

Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democrats, called for an independent investigation into Mayich’s collapse in separate statements. 

“What happened to Matthew Mayich is devastating,” Kelly said in a statement. “I’ve been thinking about him and his family. They deserve answers, as do his teammates who came forward with their concerns despite the risk to their careers. For that to happen there must be a full, independent investigation so that no athlete faces this again.” 

Seven players and Mayich’s parents had called for the coaches involved in the workout to be placed on leave. 

In a 26-page letter Sept. 28 to ASU President Michael Crow, the seven players challenged parts of the university’s initial report, including the length of the workout, when water was available and the treatment Mayich received after he collapsed.

Assistant coach Alex Hicks remains on ASU’s hockey staff. Cronkite News confirmed Wednesday that Hicks expects to coach the team during its opening series at Lindenwood.

​​Attorneys for Mayich’s family said placing Powers on leave did not go far enough. 

“Putting Powers on leave while his best friend of the last decade stays in charge of the locker room doesn’t solve the problem,” the attorneys said in a statement provided to ABC15, referring to Hicks. 

Attorneys for the Mayich family urged ASU to authorize the interim head coach to remove anyone who could retaliate against players.

ASU athletic director Graham Rossini said “after thorough and careful deliberation, I believe (putting Powers on leave) is the best move to provide stability for the hockey program.

Powers said in his statement that “Matthew and his family remain foremost in my thoughts and prayers. What happened to Matthew has deeply affected everyone in our program, and I continue to hope for strength and healing for him and his family. … I intend to cooperate fully and want a process that Matthew, our players, their families and the broader ASU community can have confidence in.”

He also addressed allegations in the seven players’ letter that they and others fear retaliation.

“I respect our players’ right to speak openly and honestly about their experiences, and I want every player to feel completely free to participate candidly in the review,” Powers said. “I care deeply about these young men and their well-being, and I will respect whatever they choose to share through that process.

“I always have and always will care deeply about this team, this program and the people in it. For now, the players deserve the opportunity to focus on one another, on Matthew and on the season ahead. I will support them from a distance while the facts are carefully examined and the process moves forward.”

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference said it backed the decision. 

“The concerns raised by student-athletes deserve to be heard and thoroughly reviewed,” the organization said. “We will not prejudge the findings of that review.”

Corbett joined ASU in 2024 after three seasons at Quinnipiac, where he was an assistant on the team that won the 2023 national championship under coach Rand Pecknold. In his only stint as a college head coach, Corbett went 48-181-24 over seven seasons at Alabama-Huntsville. He was one of the ASU staff members present during the Aug. 20 workout that left Mayich on life support.

The Sun Devils play games on Friday and Saturday at Lindenwood in St. Charles, Missouri, about 23 miles northwest of St. Louis. Their first homestand is Oct. 9-10 against Holy Cross at Mullett Arena.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.