- The Mayich family’s attorney says the Blues prospect has zero chance of recovery after his Aug. 20 collapse at Arizona State
- Robert Carey says ASU is pushing a false version of how hard the workout was and wants the coaching staff pulled off the team
- Read below for what the retired Green Beret who ran the session says happened
The news out of Arizona State keeps getting worse.
Matthew Mayich has “zero chance of recovery,” the attorney representing his family told Robert Anglen of The Arizona Republic. The 21-year-old defenseman and St. Louis Blues prospect has been in a coma since collapsing during an outdoor team workout on Aug. 20.
Robert Carey, the family’s lawyer, said the school has quietly pushed a story about how easy that session was while players told him privately it was unbearably hard. He was asked whether he believes ASU’s account:
“My investigation shows the storyline is completely false. This case has shattered (Mayich’s) life. He deserves, and his family deserves, a proper investigation.”
The attorney has interviewed multiple players from the team. They described a 50-minute session run by a retired Green Beret who yelled at them from the start like a drill instructor, with no standard breaks.
Water went to the players who led exercises, and little was left for the ones who trailed. Everybody was told not to complain.
He was disoriented and struggling well before he went down, according to Carey. The temperature at ASU’s Joe Selleh Track that morning sat between 87 and 89 degrees, and Tempe Fire Medical Rescue got the call at 8:30 a.m.
College Hockey News reached Carey separately and came away with the same answer:
Tim Ziesel, the volunteer who ran the workout at head coach Greg Powers’ request, tells it very differently through his attorney. Buddy Rake called the session mid-level intensity, comparable to a high school football conditioning day, with coaches and medical staff on the field the whole time.
Rake was asked directly how extreme the drills were:
“This was not a Green Beret or SEAL workout. Far from it. The head coach, assistant coaches and medical were always present.”
Nobody from the university has contacted Ziesel since it happened, per Rake. Sprints, push-ups, flutter kicks and carrying teammates were on the menu that morning, and Ziesel left before the players finished.
Suspending the coaching staff is the first thing Carey wants, so investigators can talk to players without them worrying about scholarships. ASU declined to comment on any of his allegations.
Athletic director Graham Rossini went on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Aug. 28 and downplayed the review, saying nobody is suggesting anything went wrong and the school is just understanding the scenario.
Drafted in the sixth round by the Blues in 2023, Mayich is a sophomore from Stoney Creek, Ontario. He put up 106 points in more than 250 games with the Ottawa 67’s, spent last season at Clarkson, and joined Arizona State’s top-ranked transfer class this summer. He never played a game for the Sun Devils.
Carey, a former deputy chief at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, said his firm will keep pushing until every email, text and video tied to the collapse is handed over.
“The president of the university needs to put out the truth,” Carey said.
