why did all those kids leave MadLax. The pros and cons of that team have been known to everyone for years. why now?
The shortest answer is probably a word for some phenomenon, but I'm not a sociologist, so, you'll have to take the semi-short answer (and I have two).
1. People will follow a toxic leader and accept whatever bizarre behaviors or excuses, as long as the leader keeps winning, and other less weird market options (teams) seem less successful aka "NL is a chump team, they'll never win HoCo." ML being nowhere near a HoCo championship for 2 years straight, and neither of those at the hands of their accepted rival (Hawks) was definitely "more than enough" for the families to see, given the absurd level of talent they have.
2. To the sadness and surprise of club directors everywhere, given the out of control pricing of everything in our lives, most families are evaluating how they spend their money, which I know for a fact impacted a lot of roster changes (and a lot of half-full camps) this summer. "Why am I paying $3K for this guy to yell bad instructions at my kid every week?" and "why wasn't this covered at practice last week?" is a valid question in the case of many club teams including ML.
You are correct in my opinion which is sad. As if winning the 3rd grade HOCO championship was reason enough to put aside your better judgement. It reflects really poorly on the MadLax parents. They've always been the worst sideline stooges.
To be fair to Cabell, this is a phenomenon I've seen repeatedly in the workplace, especially with executive leadership.........but also in families and obviously in politics. We ignore the evidence of our eyes and ears until it's clear that the weirdo/narcissist in charge is not protecting our interests.
the 2028 families probably looked at the older MadLax teams and didn't like what they saw. 2027 has daddy ball, toxic culture, and high turnover. 2026 imploded completely because nobody wanted to be on the team. 2024, also coached by Cabell, had its best players leave. the good news is that MadLax has backfilled these teams with fly ins and guest players, but Madlax teams have become a revolving door. but if you have alternative options to be on a real team, with real coaches, and the same lineup for practices, games, tournaments, most families will take that. honestly, once the dust settles after tryouts, I would expect some further quiet migration to NL or DCE over the course of the fall and winter. a player good enough to get a roster spot on one of those teams would be nuts not to do so.
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