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    "parsed_content": "Illustration: Eamonn Dalton \/ The Athletic; Photos: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images \/ USA TODAY Network via Reuters ConnectGreg Powers was going to fix the problem. The longtime Arizona State University men\u2019s hockey coach, the only person to lead the program in its 12 years in Division I, had watched his 2025-26 team lose 10 of its final 12 games and miss the postseason, and he knew why.In a 247Sports podcast on May 18, Powers lamented that he didn\u2019t get \u201cbuy-in\u201d from the players and that the Sun Devils had lost the blue-collar identity that he felt propelled a nascent Division I program to four winning seasons and a 2019 NCAA Tournament berth.\u201cI hate to say the word \u2018soft,\u2019 but that\u2019s what we were,\u201d Powers said. \u201cAnd it became contagious. It was a team that just didn\u2019t attack adversity.\u201dThis season was going to be different, starting from day one. When players reported for the first official team activity Aug. 20 at Sun Angel Stadium, the workout was not led by the coach. Instead, according to photographs and interviews, Powers wore a pair of slide-on sandals and watched from the side as Tim Ziesel, 39, a former Green Beret, shouted commands at his players.Powers told the players that the new workout would be challenging, multiple people present said, but if they wanted to be successful, they would get through it as a team.Among the new players Powers brought in was Matthew Mayich, a St. Louis Blues prospect who arrived from Stoney Creek, Ontario, about a week earlier. Teammates called him \u201cMayo.\u201d Toward the end of the roughly 45-minute workout, Mayich, 21, collapsed, dropping the medicine ball he had been hauling. An athletic trainer hurried toward him and attempted to cool him down. Emergency responders rushed to the scene. Mayich was taken to a local hospital. He remains in critical condition; a lawyer representing his family said he is unlikely to recover.Powers and the coaching staff haven\u2019t spoken publicly about what happened that day, and Powers declined to comment through a university spokesperson. Last month, Arizona State, which also declined to comment for this story, announced it was reviewing the circumstances of the workout, repeatedly emphasizing the review was not an investigation. The Arizona State University Police Department opened a probe, a move the university called standard.The Athletic spoke to more than two dozen people for this story, including many who witnessed the training session or were briefed on it, and reviewed photographs of the workout, as well as text messages and emails, in an effort to understand what happened at the workout and the decision-making surrounding it. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about an incident that is the subject of an ongoing inquiry or out of fear of retaliation.Powers was determined to toughen up his team, those sources said. His normal preseason conditioning setup was replaced by an unorthodox workout that may have violated NCAA guidelines on acclimating athletes to new climates and training periods.In the aftermath of Mayich\u2019s collapse, some players are angry that Powers is being allowed to continue coaching while investigators ask them about the incident and the program, team sources said. Some feel trapped as they want justice for a teammate on life support, but their hockey careers are under the control of the coach who greenlit the workout that put him there.Powers became a polarizing figure as he built Arizona State from a club team \u2014 for which he played goaltender in the late 1990s \u2014 into a credible NCAA Division I program. Several former players described an admired, culture-setting motivator who helped them land jobs and cared for them even after graduation. He was effusive with praise when things were going well and a skilled recruiter who sold players on creating a tradition of hockey in the desert. He cultivated bonds with donors, leading to the construction of the $137 million Mullett Arena and the position of Greg Powers Endowed Men\u2019s Hockey Head Coach.But his reputation within hockey was mixed. Though seen as a strong fundraiser, he was considered a weak tactician, and he was sensitive about the latter. He could also flash a temper. He smashed a staff member\u2019s laptop during intermission of a game and broke a flat-screen television in the locker room after another, according to people who witnessed or were told about the outbursts.He called players \u201cpussies,\u201d according to multiple players from the past three seasons, and was known to fire off late-night text messages to players disparaging their character, effort and performance \u2014 calling one\u2019s performance \u201ca joke,\u201d telling another he had cost ASU a game, and mocking another\u2019s postgame media availability.\n Arizona State coach Greg Powers looks on during a home game against Denver in 2025.Zac BonDurant \/ Getty ImagesBefore one practice last season, players saw a flyer tacked to the wall of the hockey facility. At the top were the practice groups for the day, split into maroon and gold. In the middle was a picture of a pack of Charmin Ultra Soft toilet paper. Below that were the logos for the ECHL and WHL \u2014 leagues that would be either considered a step down or where they could go play instead \u2014 next to another for the NCAA transfer portal. Beneath the logos was a photo of office cubicles.Another day, Powers printed out and posted a text message he said he received from a season-ticket holder and ASU hockey alum that read, in part: \u201cIf I was in your place, I cut half the team and call up club players with heart. Because talent obviously means f\u2014 all. Talented pussies are still f\u2014ing pussies.\u201dAfter last season, 10 players entered the transfer portal. This season\u2019s roster featured 18 newcomers, including Mayich.The Athletic spoke with 12 people either at the Aug. 20 workout or who were briefed about it. Players were uneasy as they gathered at Sun Angel Stadium around 7 a.m., expecting that Ziesel\u2019s workout would be arduous. The team\u2019s normal preliminary training in years past featured a 2-mile run, 300-yard shuttle run and weightlifting. Ziesel, who served in Afghanistan and Ukraine before being discharged in 2020, had given a motivational talk to the team the previous season, but he had never led one of their workouts.Several former Arizona Christian University basketball players who went through Ziesel-directed workouts at the school in 2022-24 told The Athletic that those sessions were physically and mentally demanding but not impossible, studded with stories from Ziesel\u2019s military career to motivate them. They noted the workouts started early in the morning, sometimes before sunrise, to avoid problems with heat.\u201cMan, that name still gives me chills,\u201d wrote ACU forward Mikah Blackwell, who added a laughing emoji. He participated in the workouts in 2022 and 2023 and said he has fond memories of Ziesel.Ziesel did not respond to repeated phone calls, text messages and emails with questions about the workout. He retained a criminal defense attorney, Larry Kazan, who confirmed that ASUPD has asked to interview his client. \u201cWe\u2019re still watching things unfold\u201d before deciding whether to speak with police, Kazan said.Under Ziesel\u2019s direction, as the temperature pushed toward the high-80s, Arizona State players lined up in a staggered formation. He called out a position with an associated exercise \u2014 planks for push-ups, squat for squats, supine with legs elevated for flutterkicks. Players would have to repeat the command and yell, \u201cReady!\u201dIf they said it incorrectly, they would run the width of the field, down and back. If Ziesel saw players \u201ccheating the drill\u201d or not executing with proper form, he ordered extra sprints.About two minutes into the workout, a player dropped to a knee. Ziesel ordered the team to sprint the width of the field, down and back. He directed similar sprints at least a half-dozen other times.Another player \u2014 not Mayich \u2014 dropped to his knees and appeared nauseous before he vomited. He went to drink water. Another player vomited.Ziesel turned the workout into a competition. Players bear-crawled the width of the field and halfway back. Ziesel stood in the middle of the field, and the first eight players to reach his toes could stop. The rest had to keep going, and when they finished, Ziesel ordered them to stand and run the length of the track. The first six finishers were done, but the others were told to keep running. The faster finishers had time to sip water for about 15 seconds. The later ones did not. When asked about this, Kazan said, \u201cI don\u2019t believe water was denied to anyone.\u201dMayich, who is 6-foot-3, was one of the late finishers. During the bear crawl, one witness said, Mayich crawled on his hands and knees and seemed disoriented. When he stood, he almost collapsed before he caught himself by straightening his legs.In a different segment, players held planks while Ziesel told stories from his military career. Records show he served in the Navy as a hospitalman from 2007 to 2011, attempted SEAL training, then joined the Army in 2013. In a podcast reflecting on growing up as a child of globetrotting missionary parents and later serving in the military, Ziesel said: \u201cGod\u2019s made me a protector at heart, to say the least.\u201dAfter the planks, he briefly huddled the group and told the players a story about the time he broke his leg on duty and had to be carried by a fellow soldier. That led to a drill where players had to fireman\u2019s-carry a teammate the width of the field. A player carried Mayich, one witness said, but Mayich did not carry his partner back.Ziesel gathered the players again. He belittled players\u2019 toughness, telling them his young son could perform the workout, which Kazan characterized as common motivational coaching, then added: \u201cThey\u2019ve heard worse, I\u2019m sure.\u201d\n \n \n \n \n What You Should Read Next\n \n \n \n \n Military-style workout under scrutiny after Arizona State hockey player\u2019s collapse\n \n \n Matthew Mayich remained hospitalized and in critical condition a week after the punishing training session.\n \n \n \n \n \n Ziesel gave them instructions for the final event, then shook coaches\u2019 hands and left. He paused on his walk out to jokingly ask a handful of 20-something hockey alumni watching the session if they planned to join the workout tomorrow. It remains unclear why Ziesel left, though his friend and former attorney Buddy Rake said he didn\u2019t want players getting \u201ctoo attached.\u201d Ziesel still had two more days of workouts with them.Players formed teams of five and ran a relay race, each leg a sprint the length of the field and back, while hefting a medicine ball.Mayich, a sophomore defenseman who played last season at Clarkson University, was one of the last players to start his leg of the medicine ball relay, sources said. As he approached the other side of the field, he stumbled and dropped the medicine ball. Mayich crumpled to the ground. He tried to stand and collapsed again. Mayich tried once more to get up, then collapsed for the last time.One player screamed for someone to help Mayich. An assistant coach shouted similar directions. Teammates sprinted to him and found him lying on the ground, incoherent and distressed, unable to respond to questions. He stayed in the sun for several minutes before four players carried him into the shade, holding his legs out and keeping him upright. One player tried sitting back-to-back with him to keep him upright.An athletic trainer put an ice pack on Mayich\u2019s chest, squirted him with water and placed towels from a cooler on him in a desperate effort to lower his body temperature. Sirens pierced the quiet morning. Tempe Fire Medical Rescue responded to the stadium at 8:31 a.m. The urgent voice of a first responder crackled over the radio about 10 minutes later: \u201cWe\u2019re going to be coming down with a serious heat emergency \u2026 Have them ready for it.\u201dMayich was hospitalized in critical condition. A lawyer representing his family, Rob Carey, said Mayich suffered exertional heat stroke, leading to a lack of oxygen in his brain that left him unconscious and unlikely to recover.The next morning, one player short, the team practiced. Powers was present. Ziesel was not.Initially, players were led to believe by hockey staff members that Mayich would recover. But by the time the incident became public three days later, most understood the gravity of his condition. They then watched as school officials and others downplayed the workout\u2019s severity.Rake, Ziesel\u2019s friend, minimized the workout\u2019s difficulty. \u201cThere isn\u2019t a D1 athlete on the planet that would describe this as a hard day of exercising, including the ASU hockey team,\u201d he told Phoenix\u2019s 12News.Athletic director Graham Rossini, during his first public comments on the collapse, emphasized the nature of the school\u2019s inquiry during an interview on Arizona Sports 98.7: \u201cThis is not an investigation where someone is suggesting something went wrong. We\u2019re just reviewing the facts and understanding the scenario.\u201dRossini emailed players\u2019 parents the first week of September promising that initial findings from the review will be shared soon; an ASU spokesperson said that information would be shared in the next week.Arizona State players attended a vigil for Mayich on Sept. 3 at the hospital where he is on life support. The coaching staff wasn\u2019t there, according to multiple people present. Two days after the vigil, and two weeks after Mayich collapsed, the hockey program made its first public reference to the situation in a post on X:\u201cMatthew \u2013 your ASU teammates and the entire Sun Devil community are keeping you and your family in our thoughts and prayers during this incredibly difficult time.\u201dSome players are conflicted, some are angry, people close to them said. Some are also scared. School and police officials probing the situation have reached out to them, but some players have been advised not to talk unless a law enforcement agency independent of ASU takes over, as the Mayich family\u2019s attorney has demanded. None of the players have spoken publicly about the incident, and some have been harangued on social media and in private messages for not speaking up for Mayich. Some would like to, but they\u2019ve been cowed by the specter of retaliation.\u201cThere\u2019s always that fear there are going to be repercussions coming back to you because the hockey world is so small,\u201d said a former ASU player. \u201cIf you haven\u2019t been in a high-intensity locker room with a coach like that, no one would truly understand.\u201dIn private, some current players have lamented the impossible position they have been put in, sources said. They believe the workout went too far and are angered at any suggestion that it didn\u2019t. And almost every day they interact with Powers, the coach who approved the workout that landed \u201cMayo,\u201d their teammate, in the hospital and unlikely to recover.With the season scheduled to open Oct. 2, Powers\u2019 words from May linger: Is this the \u201cadversity\u201d they are supposed to \u201cattack?\u201d Is it \u201csoft\u201d to feel that some things are bigger than hockey?\nKatie Strang|Senior Writer, InvestigationsFollow Nathan Fenno|Senior Writer, EnterpriseFollow Adam Kilgore|Senior WriterFollow Sep 17, 2026SUPPORTED BYConnections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports termsSUPPORTED BYPlay today's puzzleWhat did you think of this story?MEHSOLIDAWESOME",
    "published_at": "2026-09-17T11:25:18+00:00",
    "author_name": "Katie Strang, Nathan Fenno, Adam Kilgore",
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    "ai_headline": "Arizona State hockey player Matthew Mayich in critical condition after military-style workout",
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