Tim Zeisel, the former Green Beret who led a military-style outdoor workout that hospitalized an Arizona State University hockey player, was reportedly neither under contract with nor vetted by the university.
According to news radio station KTAR in Glendale, citing reporting by The Arizona Republic, Zeisel’s attorney, Buddy Rake, said his client only had a handshake agreement with head hockey coach Greg Powers and staff.
Such an agreement would appear to violate ASU’s athletics department guidelines.
“The policy says if the university is going to bring in somebody … from outside to work with athletes, they have to go through a vetting process and they have to sign what’s known as a consultant police form,” Republic reporter Robert Anglen told KTAR’s Outspoke with Bruce & Gaydos show Tuesday. “The trainer and his lawyer both say that never happened.”
ASU athletics director Graham Rossini had indicated the review the university is conducting into this incident includes looking into whether its policies for outside consultants were followed. It is "not an investigation where somebody's suggesting something went wrong," Rossini emphasized Aug. 28, according to KTAR.
The university previously indicated that it has institutional guidelines and requirements for outside entities who interact with its student-athletes and sport programs.
Matthew Mayich has remained hospitalized since he collapsed during the late-August practice. Robert Carey, an attorney for Mayich’s family, said Sept. 2 that the hockey player has no chance for recovery, stating “his body ceased functioning in a fundamental way, and this condition is irreversible,” KTAR reported.
Related: Attorney: ASU Hockey Player Who Collapsed From Heat 'Unlikely to Recover'
Leonard Aragon, another attorney representing Mayich’s family, claimed the trainer pushed athletes to their limit and beyond with a military-style workout, KTAR reported. He also alleged that the student-athletes would be punished for stopping or drinking water.
“Zeisel and his attorney dispute whether [the exercises] were grueling or military style, … except in tone and cadence they say,” Anglen said. “He also says he left the practice early before the workouts were over and before Mr. Mayich collapsed.”
Related: Military-Style Workout Scrutinized After Arizona State Hockey Player's Collapse, Hospitalization
The lack of contract isn’t the only policy that ASU allegedly violated as guidelines also state that student-athletes are supposed to be gradually acclimatized to the over seven to 14 days, according to KTAR, citing reporting by The Arizona Republic.
Aragon said Mayich flew in from Ottawa, Canada, less than a week before the workout — his first with the team.
ASU previously said that Sun Devil Athletics has heat-illness guidelines in place that are based on guidelines issued by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.
“Based on descriptions provided by the Mayich family lawyer, Mayich started suffering throughout the workout. He was showing signs of not being able to complete tasks. He was disoriented. … Then when he collapsed, they did not bring him to a bath. They did not put him in ice,” Anglen said. “They instead stood around him, left him on the field laying there. … As I understand it, players tried to shade him and others worked on him.”
As reported by KTAR's Kylie Werner, Aragon and Mayich’s family want ASU to authorize an independent investigation into the incident.
“They’re calling for either Phoenix PD, the attorney general or … Department of Public Safety to pick up that investigation,” Anglen told KTAR. “They have asked ASU to respond to the request of as of now they have not.”
"Aragon said a lawsuit may be filed in the future, but for now he and Carey are conducting interviews and collecting the facts of the case," Werner wrote Tuesday.
