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Following more than a month of public pressure, Arizona State has retained an independent investigator to probe the on-campus workout that left 21-year-old men’s hockey player Matthew Mayich on life support. Former Supreme Court of Arizona Chief Justice Scott Bales, 70, will lead a review of the facts put forth by the university, Mayich’s teammates, and law enforcement.
Mayich, a St. Louis Blues prospect and first-year ASU student, collapsed during an outdoor, military-style workout on Aug. 20. Until the announcement of the independent investigation, the ASU Police Department was leading the review.
In an interview with Bridget Condon on Front Office Sports Tonight, Mayich family attorney Leonard Aragorn called the ASUPD’s steering of the investigation “insufficient.”
Calls for an outside inquiry have been consistent since the beginning, including from Mayich’s family, which has made its desire for one clear. But pressure piled on after Sept. 23, when seven anonymous ASU hockey players released a letter refuting many of the accounts within ASU’s initial review of the workout, which did not assign any blame. Through a lawyer, they too called for an independent investigation. Motivated by the glaring discrepancies between the ASU review and the players’ letter, Arizona lawmakers at both the state and federal levels, including both Democratic senators, joined the push.
“An independent investigator needs to interview every single player. They need to interview every single staff member, every single coach and say, ‘Why did this happen?’” Aragorn said on Front Office Sports Tonight on Thursday. “Because if ASU’s own policies were followed, this never would have happened, and they weren’t. And someone needs to be held accountable here.”
ASU VP James Rund, who released the university’s preliminary review of the workout on Aug. 21, wrote that the school requests the review be completed by early December. “ASU student-athletes will be invited to provide information and suggestions, and to ask questions, with options for confidential and anonymized participation,” Rund wrote in the transmission to president Michael Crow.
This provision of anonymity is a key point. The seven students who came forward did so unnamed out of fear of retribution from coaches for speaking out, and were worried their scholarships and playing time could be in jeopardy.
Tim Carey, the lawyer for the students, stressed to Condon in a Front Office Sports Tonight interview that his clients and their teammates needed an outside review to speak freely. Although head coach Greg Powers is currently on paid administrative leave, Carey said he feared the players would still not be able to speak truthfully without continued fear of reprisal since his coaching staff, which was also present at the workout, is still behind the bench.
Justice Bales will report findings to ASU. In a statement Friday, Robert Carey, also a Mayich family attorney, said Bales should instead follow past precedents and report the results directly to the Board of Regents, which oversees state education systems, instead of “the office whose own review has missed too much.” He also expressed skepticism that ASU has retained Bales to examine “policies,” rather than directly investigate “what went wrong on the field and who is responsible.”
Carey renewed the Mayich family’s call, echoed by the seven players, to put the full coaching staff on leave while the investigation is completed.
Appearing on the Burns and Gambino Show on Thursday afternoon, ASU AD Graham Rossini said in his first public comments since Mayich’s collapse that the school had “really encouraged everyone in the program” to share information through a “deliberate process.” He continued, “We want the answers and as much clarity as we can find.”
As the Sun Devils opened their season against Lindenwood Friday, Mayich remained in a coma in Arizona.
“We’re hoping for a miracle,” Aragorn said. “The family is praying for a miracle, but at this time … he’s definitely not going to be the Matthew that we know. And he’s unlikely to leave the hospital.”
