PHOENIX — Arizona State University has retained a former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice to review the circumstances surrounding the collapse of ASU hockey player Matthew Mayich.
According to a news release by ASU, the former Supreme Court of Arizona Chief Justice Scott Bales will "lead an independent review of the facts that have been identified by the university, attorneys for the Mayich family, attorneys for members of the ASU hockey team, law enforcement agencies, and others as appropriate."
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He will make recommendations on:
- Planning and approval of outdoor athletic activities.
- Staffing, policies and procedures for outdoor athletic activities.
- Preparation for and response to adverse events or reactions occurring during outdoor athletic activities.
- Use of outside consultants in the planning and delivery of strength and conditioning and practice activities.
Bales has served on the Arizona Supreme Court for more than a decade and five years as a Chief Justice. Before taking the bench, he practiced law for almost 20 years.
This decision comes on the heels of ASU placing head hockey coach Greg Powers on leave amid the investigation into the collapse.
Rob Carey, the attorney for Mayich's family released the following statement after the announcement:
"ASU has finally agreed to bring in someone from outside. It took six weeks, two U.S. senators, legislative committee chairs, and the Board of Regents to get there, and ASU has again failed to do what is necessary.
Justice Bales is a respected choice, and he will do an excellent job. But ASU hired him to review policies that may help prevent a tragedy like this in the future. That's not what's needed right now. What is necessary, and what the Mayich family has asked for and deserves, is an investigation of what went wrong on that field and who is responsible. Justice Bales has not been asked to answer those fundamental questions.
ASU's own safety rules require a root-cause investigation whenever a student is hurt. Yet that is not happening. The first thing ASU needs to do is get answers to the hard questions: How did this workout get onto the field? Why did no one stop it when players were in visible distress, with no water, no rest, direct sun, and kids who had been in Arizona barely a week? Which ASU, conference, and NCAA rules were broken, by whom, and why?
We've seen this done right. When Jordan McNair collapsed at a Maryland football workout in 2018, outside investigators interviewed the coaches and staff who witnessed the workout and reconstructed in detail what happened and when. The University System of Maryland Board of Regents took control of the investigation from the campus and released the findings publicly. A separate independent commission investigated the broader culture of the football program, while the head coach remained on administrative leave.
There are firms that specialize in exactly this work. Some reconstruct exertional heat stroke cases and evaluate emergency preparedness. Others investigate institutional and personnel failures.
ASU should expand Justice Bales's mandate to cover the questions that matter and let him bring in the expertise he needs. Otherwise, it should appoint a second independent investigator to examine what ASU's employees did and failed to do, and the conduct of whomever they allowed to run the workout that left Matthew Mayich in a hospital bed fighting for his life.
Justice Bales should report to the Board of Regents, not to the office whose own review has missed too much. The findings should be made public. And until the work is done, ASU should keep the coaches who were on that field away from the players it says, once again, it wants to hear from, who right now are playing under the watchful eye of the head coach’s best friend."
Mayich remains in critical condition after collapsing on Aug. 20 during an off-ice workout.
