- ASU’s initial report on the Aug. 20 workout that left Matthew Mayich on life support assigns no blame
- The hockey staff never submitted a training plan to the school’s strength and conditioning coaches
- Read below for the family lawyer’s response and the one step ASU actually committed to
Arizona State’s first report on the workout that left Matthew Mayich on life support does not blame anyone.
The university released its initial findings Tuesday in a letter from senior vice president James Rund to school president Michael Crow. It lays out a timeline of Aug. 20, lists the policies ASU already had on the books, and stops there. Rob Carey, the lawyer for Mayich’s family, gave his response to Katie Strang, Adam Kilgore and Nathan Fenno of The Athletic. He called the findings mind-boggling.
“This report, it’s more advocacy than fact-finding. It completely misses the point. I’m just blown away that they’re offering up a committee to come up with new policies. The problem is not that ASU lacked policies. The problem is, no one followed them.”
One finding does land where the family has been pushing. ASU’s hockey coaches asked permission for former Green Beret Timothy Ziesel to speak to the team, but they never submitted a plan of his training activities to the school’s strength and conditioning coaches.
That session ran from roughly 7 to 8:30 a.m. at Sun Angel Stadium, an outdoor track facility on the Tempe campus. Temperatures sat between 86 and 89 degrees with humidity in the high 40s and low 50s.
Mayich collapsed during a wind-down run with a medicine ball. He stumbled, dropped the ball and went to the ground, then tried to get back up and fell to his knees. The athletic trainer applied iced towels and cool water, then called 911 as his condition got worse.
ASU’s only commitment in the report is a multi-disciplinary panel of outside experts who will recommend best practices for planning outdoor workouts, responding to emergencies and using outside consultants.
Campus police opened their own investigation into the collapse earlier this month, and that file goes to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for independent review whenever it is finished. Twenty people have been interviewed so far across both reviews.
St. Louis drafted Mayich 170th overall in 2023. The 21-year-old from Stoney Creek, Ontario played four seasons with the Ottawa 67’s and spent last year at Clarkson before transferring to ASU, and he never signed an entry-level contract.
