An Arizona State assistant hockey coach will not be on bench at the team’s home opener Friday night in the continuing fallout following the near-fatal collapse of a player during an outdoor workout in August.
Assistant coach Tim Hicks “is not going to be with the team this weekend,” ASU spokesperson Jay Thorne told the Arizona Republic in a phone interview Thursday.
Hicks was one of four coaches present when Matthew Mayich collapsed during a military-style workout led by a former Green Beret on Aug. 20.
Mayich, 21, has been in the hospital since the workout and is unlikely to recover, according to his family’s attorney, Rob Carey, who said Mayich suffered exertional heat stroke that reduced the flow of oxygen to his brain.
Head coach Greg Powers was placed on paid administrative leave last week after seven players disputed the university’s initial review of the events surrounding Mayich’s collapse.
In their letter to university president Michael M. Crow, the athletes said they submitted their letter anonymously through an attorney for fear of retaliation from Powers and his coaching staff.
ASU said assistant coach Mick Corbett would lead the team in Powers’ absence with support from Hicks and another assistant coach, all of whom were present when Mayich collapsed. Carey, the attorney for the Mayich family, said last week that Powers’ removal was not enough to protect the players from retaliation because Hicks, in particular, remained in a position of authority over the players.
“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. “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.”
ASU did not respond to ESPN’s questions about the status of Hick’s employment Thursday or that of any of the other assistant coaches.
ASU spokesman Jerry Garcia said in an email that “Corbett will be leading the bench this weekend” and that former NHL player Taylor Pyatt “has been around the program over the last month after being approved and cleared” in August and will also “be on the bench this weekend.”
Also on Thursday, ASU Athletic Director Graham Rossini told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo that the university was close to making a decision on who it will appoint as the team’s interim coach.
Rossini said he has been in communication with the players about the search.
“We told them that we’re committing to finding a veteran, experienced head coach, great knowledge of the sport, great knowledge of our conference and college hockey specifically,” Rossini said. “I think we’re days away, and we’re working quickly towards that goal.”
Gonzalez, the ASU spokesman, told ESPN that “ultimately the interim coach when named will pick their coaching staff.”
In their letter, the seven players said no one took Mayich’s core temperature after he collapsed and he was kept in direct sun for several minutes before he was moved. They said there was no cold water immersion tub or ice chest on the field, as required by ASU policy.
“Nothing effectively cooled him” in the 17 minutes it took emergency medical services to arrive, the players wrote.
Earlier this week, ASU confirmed to ESPN that Amanda Doyle, the hockey team’s athletic trainer, has been reassigned to a different team.
“Trainers are employed by ASU student health services and are reassigned regularly,” Thorne told ESPN on Tuesday.
Doyle is a Sun Devils graduate and joined the athletic training staff in 2022, according to her biography on the school website.
When asked what team Doyle will now be working with, and if she will continue to have physical contact with student athletes, Thorne replied: “Don’t know what team or sport she was assigned to, but the work of being a trainer does involved [sic] physical contact and treatment.”
Maggie Corbett, an assistant athletic trainer for the men’s and women’s swim and diving program, will replace her. She is not related to assistant hockey coach Mike Corbett, according to Thorne.
Arizona State has asked a former state supreme court chief justice to lead a review of the workout. The Arizona State police department is also investigating the workout and will send its findings to the Maricopa Attorney’s Office for independent review.
