Arizona State hockey coach Greg Powers has been placed on paid administrative leave days after several members of his team asked the university to remove him pending an investigation into a teammate's collapse, the university announced Wednesday.
"After thorough and careful deliberation, I believe this is the best move to provide stability for the hockey program," Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini said in a statement.
In their letter to the school sent Monday, seven hockey players detailed the Aug. 20 workout in which defenseman Matthew Mayich collapsed, disputed the findings of the university's review, and asked the school to place all staff responsible for the workout on administrative leave.
Powers could not be reached Wednesday. He repeatedly declined to answer reporters' questions about Mayich's collapse during a news conference last week.
Mayich has been in the hospital since the workout, which was led by a former Green Beret, and is unlikely to recover, according to Carey, who said Mayich suffered exertional heat stroke that reduced the flow of oxygen to his brain.
The athletes said they submitted their letter anonymously for fear of retaliation from Powers and his coaching staff.
"That fear is not directed at one person," they wrote. "The head coach and his assistant coaches were all on the field on August 20, all remain in their positions, and together they decide our playing time, scholarships levels and roster status."
Assistant coach Mike Corbett will lead the team for its opening games at Lindenwood this weekend and an interim head coach will be named soon, Arizona State said.
Robert Carey, the attorney for the Mayich family, said Powers' removal was not enough to protect the players from retaliation because members of his staff, including longtime associate coach Alex Hicks, remain.
"Putting Powers on leave while his best friend of the last decade stays in charge of the locker room doesn't solve the problem," Carey told ESPN in an email. "If ASU won't remove him, even just to err on the side of player safety, then the interim head coach it has promised should have the authority to remove anyone who poses a risk of retaliation against these players."
Asked about Carey's statement, a spokesperson for Arizona State declined comment on behalf of Hicks. The spokesperson also declined to say whether Corbett was at the Aug. 20 workout and why only Powers was put on leave.
The players wrote in their report that Powers told them after Mayich collapsed that his condition was "'just a little heat stroke' and 'heat exhaustion,' that he had 'seen this a million times,' and that Matthew 'just needs an IV.'"
After an ambulance took Mayich to the hospital, the players allege Powers told them they were "working closer to making the Frozen Four because of the workout and Matthew having pushed himself to the maximum."
The players say they were told to leave the hospital to avoid drawing "a lot of attention" to Mayich and the workout. The letter did not specify who told them to leave, but the attorney representing the players, Timothy J. Casey, told ESPN it was Powers.
The next day, according to the athletes, Powers told them he had "good news" and that Mayich would recover. The team then practiced.
"From what we could tell, at no point did Coach Powers seem to appreciate the severity of the situation," the players wrote.
In its review, the university found that the hockey team's coaching staff did not submit a training plan for the workout to be reviewed beforehand and that the Green Beret who led the workout, Tim Ziesel, did not have a contract with the school.
The National Collegiate Hockey Conference said in a statement that it supports Arizona State's decision to put Powers on leave.
"The concerns raised by student-athletes deserve to be heard and thoroughly reviewed," the conference said. "Hockey matters deeply to our conference, but the well-being of our student-athletes matters more."
The Arizona State police department is investigating the incident and will send its findings to the Maricopa Attorney's Office for independent review. The hockey players and Mayich's parents have called for an independent investigation.
Powers played for Arizona State in the 1990s and has been the head coach since 2010.
