Matthew Mayich case renews student-athlete safety questions

(Photo: Connor Gleason/WCSN)

Arizona State hockey has been at the forefront of college hockey news since second-year defenseman Matthew Mayich collapsed during a team workout on Aug. 20. That doesn’t seem likely to change, as Mayich remains in a coma, while head coach Greg Powers was placed on administrative leave.

On Monday, seven ASU hockey players submitted a 26-page letter calling for the entire coaching staff to be placed on leave. On Wednesday, ASU placed Powers on leave, resolving a portion of the players’ request. Mike Corbett, who was present at the workout according to the players, will lead the Sun Devils’ bench at Lindenwood for the season opener, as the rest of Powers’ staff remains with the team.

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference announced its support of student-athletes speaking up and being heard.

“Hockey matters deeply to our conference, but the well-being of our student-athletes matters more,” the conference said in a statement.

Robert Carey, the attorney for the Mayich family, also released a statement to ESPN on the family’s behalf explaining their frustration with the move.

“Putting Powers on leave while his best friend of the last decade stays in charge of the locker room doesn’t solve a thing,” Carey said. “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.”

Carey’s statement also said, “the coaches who ran that workout on Aug. 20 need to be removed while an independent investigation gets to the truth.”

The case has raised questions about how the workout was run, who is responsible and what options the Mayich family has.

Even with the anomaly this case presents, this is not completely foreign territory in college sports.

In May of 2018, 19-year-old offensive lineman Jordan McNair participated in a conditioning test at the University of Maryland under hot conditions.

McNair, a redshirt first-year, began to show signs of fatigue after the seventh 110-yard sprint of the day. The only way he made it through the eighth was his teammates physically supporting him through the final sprint. It was a familiar scene: an athlete trying to push through a workout that wasn’t safe.

Despite showing textbook signs of heatstroke, McNair wasn’t properly tended to and died in the hospital 15 days later, according to The Diamondback.

After fighting for two years, McNair’s family was finally approved by the state of Maryland for a $3.5 million settlement. The university also revised its protocols and implemented new ones, such as mandatory hydration testing and more frequent recovery breaks.

Technology was installed to monitor heat-related illness based on temperature, humidity and other factors at any school-sanctioned venue. The university also expanded its training staff and established an emergency action plan.

In an article published by Maryland Today, then-University of Maryland President Wallace Loh vowed to follow all recommendations of the independent report on the case.

“What I want are recommendations to make sure this tragedy never happens again,” Loh said. “That we do everything possible to protect our student-athletes.”

After initially being retained, head coach D.J. Durkin was fired, which Jordan’s father, Marty McNair, felt was a step in the right direction.

With the settlement, Maryland announced that it would partner with the Jordan McNair Foundation, boosting the organization’s ability to educate the public and athletic programs around the country about heat exhaustion, concussions, mental health and nutrition.

The university also agreed to create and fund a student-athlete safety program in McNair’s honor, at a cost of approximately $300,000 per year for a decade.

Even with the seven-figure settlement, Marty McNair said the real victory for the McNair family was proving that when an athlete is wronged or neglected, it’s possible to bring it to light.

“This victory today shows a lot of people that guess what? It can be done,” McNair said. “If there’s a wrong to their child, or a loss of their child due to negligence along the way, it is possible to get a victory.”

While McNair’s family found justice, it’s not the only example of student-athlete neglect.

10 years earlier, in 2008, at the University of Central Florida, 19-year-old wide receiver Ereck Plancher endured a punishment along with his teammates for returning from vacation “unfit.”

Plancher began gasping for breath, fell to his knees and eventually passed out, according to a testimonial from teammate Anthony Davis. Instead of taking action, head coach George O’Leary waved all water and trainers off the field, forcing Plancher’s teammates to carry him off the field unresponsive. He died shortly after at a hospital.

Plancher had sickle cell trait, something the university was aware could be problematic when pushed beyond limits. Court records showed that despite that knowledge, neither O’Leary nor Plancher himself had been explicitly warned about the fatal risks by the training staff.

A jury found the UCF Athletics Association negligent and awarded Plancher’s parents $10 million, but years later, a twist changed the verdict. The university appealed the ruling using sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine protecting state entities from big lawsuits.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled the athletic association operated as an extension of the state university and the liability cap applied, slashing the award to just $200,000.

Arizona, where Mayich’s case would play out, handles this differently. The state has a no-cap law, meaning it cannot limit the amount a victim can be awarded. The trade-off is a strict 180-day deadline, meaning any claim filed even one day late is invalid, according to the Arizona statute.

With major news outlets continuing to investigate the story and multiple entities examining every detail, what comes next for the Sun Devils remains up in the air.

Above everything, Mayich’s parents, John and Christina Mayich, said they just want those in power to make the right decisions.

“Mostly, we want accountability for what happened to our son, and we want his teammates to be safe.”

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