My son left madlax this summer. He played with madlax for four years and was happy for 3 of those years, loved the kids he played with, played on the AAA and national teams, and began to think seriously about playing lacrosse at a D1 college. His last year at madlax was difficult however, as a new coach focused on helping other kids get recruited and significantly reduced our son's role on the team. Tournaments became a stressful experience for our son, wondering when he was finally going to get on the field, and no one was having fun watching him play anymore. After a year of less playing time, more time standing on the sidelines, no help with recruiting, and watching Cabell and the new coach heavily "market" a few specific kids -- one of whom was the photographer's son -- to every recruiting website and college recruiter possible, our son was depressed, unsure of himself, and less sure about his chances of getting noticed by a D1 college coach. We all realized that if he was going to be noticed by coaches, he needed to be on the field, playing lacrosse. We tried to leave madlax on good terms. We sent a prompt and gracious email before the summer tryouts thanking Cabell and the coaches for the many good years our son had with the team and wishing them well. We were surprised after a year of feeling invisible, to suddenly hear how important he was to the team and how ignorant we were as parents for pulling him out of madlax at this "crucial" recruiting time. Even after my husband called Cabell to try to reason with him (as he demanded) we received emails with silly threats and childish name-calling from Cabell. Cabell informed my son by text that it would be "nearly impossible" for him to get recruited to play D1 lacrosse without Cabell's help. He even told us that some college coaches had contacted him about our son, and intimated that if we wanted to know who the coaches were, we should allow our son to return to madlax. That seemed unethical to me. And extremely childish.

My son now says that leaving madlax was one of the best decisions he ever made. This summer, he was able to do some showcases with his high school team and some individual events. He also did a couple of tournaments with a new travel program in our area. This program has a very supportive coaching staff that saw my son's potential and let him play and get his confidence back. After a summer of playing great lacrosse and having fun for a change, he has recently verbally committed to a D1 program. I know it has been difficult for him to leave the friends he made on the madlax team, but in the end, because we were treated so poorly by Cabell and by his coach, it was easier to do than we thought it would be. Cabell has not changed. He likes to take credit for how talented a player is. He takes credit for things he has nothing to do with. In a way I feel a little sorry for him. He doesn't realize that some college coaches (all of the coaches we talked with at least) don't respect him and only "deal with him" because they have to if they want to recruit one of his players. The college coaches we talked to understood perfectly why our son left madlax and some even told us they thought it showed great character. I know there are other parents who are unhappy with the madlax program for various reasons but are sticking with it. There are many reasons for that. Some might think that it will hurt their sons chances of being recruited. We did not find that to be the case. I understand that our decision isn't necessarily the right decision for others, but I wanted to share our story because it might help others who are feeling like they need a change but are unsure of the wisdom of making a change.