Arizona State University placed its hockey coach, Greg Powers, on paid administrative leave on Wednesday after an anonymous letter from seven players disputed parts of the school’s review of the collapse of Matthew Mayich, a Canadian N.H.L. prospect, during an outdoor team workout last month.
The athletics director, Graham Rossini, announced the move in a news release. “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,” he said. “After thorough and careful deliberation, I believe this is the best move to provide stability for the hockey program.”
Mayich, 21, who was born in Hamilton, Ontario, collapsed just before 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 20 during training at Sun Angel Stadium on the university’s Tempe campus, according to a review the school released last week. The review, written by the Arizona State official James Rund, found that the hockey coaches had not submitted a plan for the workout to the school’s trainers for review before the session. Mayich remains in a hospital in critical condition.
The seven teammates sent their letter to the university’s president through a lawyer. It called for the coaching staff to be placed on leave pending an independent investigation, and alleged that Mayich “received no water” during the workout on a hot day. To the players’ knowledge, the letter said, “no one involved has been placed on leave, suspended or disciplined. The head coach who selected the instructor and scheduled the session continues to lead our program.”
The assistant coach Mike Corbett will lead the team when the season opens this weekend, the university said, and an interim head coach will be named soon.
Arizona State is one of 10 teams in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, a Division 1 conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The conference said in a statement that it supported the decision to put Powers on leave while the circumstances of what it called Mayich’s “trauma” are examined, and that the concerns raised by the players “deserve to be heard and thoroughly reviewed. We will not prejudge the findings of that review.”