Investigation underway after Arizona State hockey player Matthew Mayich collapses into a coma at team workout

An investigation is ongoing after an Arizona State hockey player collapsed on the first day of workouts with the team this fall. 

Sun Devils defenseman Matthew Mayich was participating in a workout on Aug. 20, the first day of Arizona State classes for the fall semester, when he collapsed. First responders arrived after calls of a heat-related illness, and Mayich was taken to a local hospital. He has since been transferred to the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.

Temperature at the time was reportedly between 87 and 89 degrees. The workout was being run by an ex-Green Beret soldier, too, who was leading the team through “grueling” drills, his attorney Robert Carey told the Arizona Republic on Monday. Multiple players told Carey that the former soldier, Tim Ziesel, “yelled at them from the get-go … like a drill instructor,” and that they were told not to complain. Water, he said, was only available for those who led exercises.

Mayich allegedly showed obvious signs of distress and was unable to complete tasks throughout the workout.

“He was disoriented and struggled well before he collapsed,” Carey said.

Ziesel has disputed Carey’s description of the workout, and he told the Arizona Republic that he left the workout before Mayich collapsed on the track. The workout, he said, was similar to any high school football team conditioning routine. It only resembled a military exercise in cadence and team-building, he said. 

Ziesel had volunteered to lead the workout after head coach Greg Powers asked him to. 

“This was not a Green Beret or SEAL workout, far from it,” Ziesel’s attorney said. “The head coach, assistant coaches and medical were always present … Obviously he is devastated by what’s happened to this kid. This is a horrible event that should be thoroughly and objectively investigated.”

Mayich was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the sixth round of the 2023 NHL Draft, and transferred into Arizona State from Clarkson this past summer. The sophomore spent four years with the Ottawa 67s in the Ontario Hockey League previously, too.

An investigation into the incident is still ongoing. The university is “reviewing everything surrounding the workout,” it told the Arizona Republic. 

While that’s still being sorted out, Carey said that Mayich has “zero chance of recovery.” His family also has no faith about the investigation from the school, he said, and that the school is pushing an unofficial narrative about “how minimal, how soft and how easy” the workout was.

“My investigation shows the storyline is completely false,” Carey said. “This case has shattered [Mayich’s] life. He deserves, and his family deserves, a proper investigation.”