- Arizona State placed hockey coach Greg Powers on paid administrative leave Wednesday
- The move comes two days after seven players asked the school to do exactly that
- Read below for who runs the bench in Friday’s opener and what the NCHC said
Greg Powers is off the Arizona State bench.
The school announced Wednesday that Powers has been placed on paid administrative leave as it looks into the Aug. 20 workout that left defenseman Matthew Mayich hospitalized. Assistant coach Mike Corbett will run the bench when the Sun Devils open their season Friday at Lindenwood, and ASU says an interim head coach will be named soon.
Athletic director Graham Rossini explained the decision in the school’s statement.
“Our focus continues to be on Matthew and his family, and on our student-athletes to make sure they have the support they need during this time and as the season begins,” Rossini said. “We have continued to collect as much information as possible. After thorough and careful deliberation, I believe this is the best move to provide stability for the hockey program.”
Soon after, the NCHC released its own statement supporting the move:
“The concerns raised by student-athletes deserve to be heard and thoroughly reviewed,” the conference said. “We will not prejudge the findings of that review. Hockey matters deeply to our conference, but the well-being of our student-athletes matters more.”
This is a big shift from where ASU stood just over a week ago. The school’s initial review assigned no blame for what happened, and Powers told reporters at NCHC media day he was still the right person to lead the program.
Pressure built fast from there. On Monday, seven players sent a 26-page letter to ASU president Michael Crow asking for the coaches involved to be put on leave until an outside agency finishes investigating. The letter disputed parts of the school’s review, including when the lone water break came.
Katie Strang, Adam Kilgore and Nathan Fenno of The Athletic broke the story of that letter:
Mayich’s parents, John and Christina, joined the call on Tuesday. They released a statement through family attorney Rob Carey, per the Associated Press.
“We’ve heard some things about what our family wants that aren’t right, so we want to be clear: we want this team to have a great season and we’ll be cheering for you,” the Mayichs said. “But the coaches who ran that workout on August 20 need to be removed while an independent investigation gets to the truth. The players shouldn’t have to worry about retaliation from the people they report to every day.”
Wednesday’s announcement only names Powers. ASU didn’t say anything about the rest of the staff.
Mayich, a 21-year-old Blues draft pick who transferred in from Clarkson this summer, collapsed during an outdoor workout on the first day the NCAA allows official team activities. Carey has said he suffered exertional heat stroke that cut off oxygen to his brain and is unlikely to recover.
