Eishockey allgemein

Max Power · Gestern um 17:18

Die Geschichte um Blues-Prospect Matthew Mayich macht einen gleichzeitig traurig und wütend. Mayich, 21, wollte in der kommenden Saison für die Arizona State University am College spielen, ist aber bei einem Workout des Teams im August infolge eines Hitzeschlags kollabiert. Die Familie von Mayich erhebt schwere Vorwürfe, nachdem das von Spielern als "unerträglich" beschriebene Workout unter der Leitung eines Ex-Soldaten bei über 30 Grad durchgeführt wurde. Zudem wurde das Akklimatisierungs-Protokoll, wonach neue Spieler schrittweise an die Temperaturen in Arizona gewöhnt werden sollen, offenbar komplett ignoriert. Mayich wurde nach seinem Zusammenbruch leider auch alles andere als ideal erstversorgt, um das vorsichtig zu formulieren ... und laut dem Anwalt der Familie hat der im Koma liegende junge Mann leider keine realistische Chance, sich von den erlittenen Schäden zu erholen. Die Universität weist natürlich jede Schuld von sich und betont, wie locker das Workout doch gewesen wäre.

A lawyer for the family of an Arizona State University hockey player who collapsed into a coma after an outside workout said the school was failing to properly investigate what happened when an ex-Green Beret led the team in "grueling" drills.

Robert Carey said 21-year-old defenseman Matthew Mayich has "zero chance of recovery," and his family had no faith the university would conduct a complete and impartial inquiry. ASU has pushed an unofficial narrative about "how minimal, how soft and how easy" the workout was while players and others have privately reported it as being "unbearably hard," he said.

"My investigation shows the storyline is completely false," Carey told The Arizona Republic on Aug. 31. "This case has shattered (Mayich's) life. He deserves, and his family deserves, a proper investigation."

The 50-minute workout began in the early morning of Aug. 20, the first day of classes for the fall semester. Tempe Fire Medical Rescue crews responded at 8:30 a.m. to ASU's Joe Selleh Track for calls of a heat-related illness. The temperature at the time was between 87 and 89 degrees.

Carey said he has interviewed multiple players and has learned they were forced to go through a series of intensive workouts without standard breaks while the ex-soldier "yelled at them from the get-go ... like a dril instructor."

Players were told not to complain; water was available only to those who led exercises and little was left for those who trailed, Carey said. Mayich showed obvious signs of distress and was unable to complete tasks as the workout progressed, Carey said.

"He was disoriented and struggled well before he collapsed," he said.

The university has allowed coaches and team staff to remain in their roles overseeing players, who fear retaliation, such as the loss of scholarships or positions, if they speak out, Carey said. No effort has been made to sequester the hockey players from the coaching staff who oversaw the workout, he said.

The comatose Arizona State University hockey player may have been in metro Phoenix for less than a week before being allowed to participate in a military-style outdoor workout, potentially violating the school's heat policy.

Athletes are supposed to be acclimatized, or exposed, to the heat gradually over seven to 14 days by steadily increasing the intensity and duration of activity in the sun, according to a review of Athletic Department guidelines by The Arizona Republic.

Matthew Mayich had been in the Phoenix area "five days max" when his family's lawyer said the 21-year-old suffered exertional heatstroke and collapsed on Aug. 20 during a series of drills led by an ex-Green Beret on the first day of class.

A number of provisions could have protected the Canadian native before the 50-minute workout, during the exercises and after he fell to the ground near the end — if they had been followed.

Mayich was not immediately rushed to a cooling station or dunked in an ice bath when he fell down at the ASU track; he was instead left on the ground for several minutes, Carey said. "They didn't have any cooling plan in place," he said.

School guidelines say the first choice for treating heat illness "is with immediate cold water immersion," even if an athlete is fully clothed. They say "a cold tub half-filled with water" should be ready for immediate use. Three to four coolers of ice should be next to the tub to use in case of emergency.

Athletes suffering from heat illness should be moved from direct sunlight and heat to an indoor space with air conditioning, according to the guidelines. If that's not possible, they should be moved into the shade where fans can be used to cool them.