BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM MadLax Lacrosse

BOTC has received numerous reports from parents who state that they are in the process of leaving the MadLax program over this national story and the approach of Cabell Maddux towards this player and family. There is no situation in coaching that I have every encountered that can justify this coach's attitude. As a coach on the national and regional levels in soccer, the pressure to have a team perform and to place players with college coaches is strong in both sports, but never could I imagine losing sight of the student-athlete's needs first.

Cabel was wrong, but did you ever watch te screaming going on on the VLC sidelines? That program no better, especially now that they were "acquired" by the evil empire...Club Blue seems a great alternative in the Virginia region

We were with three other local clubs prior to madlax, and feel that Madlax is worth the extra money for the following reasons:

Madlax is very organized and well run partly because they have paid full-time employees, and it makes a HUGE difference.

Many of the games are filmed and photographed by a professional photographer.

Great coaches with years of experience, some are head coaches at local private schools, others are graduates from top D1 schools.

The team camp at Catholic University is unique to madlax, and only for madlax players. The price of the camp is half of what you’d pay elsewhere.

When I send an email, I ALWAYS get a prompt response.

When I ask how my son can improve, I receive a three paged email outlining his strengths and weaknesses, and what he can do to improve

Great continuity between teams and age groups - the same team concepts are taught at every level.. When the kids age up and get a new coach, they are already familiar the offense and defense.

Free positional and speed workouts in the fall and winter

There is no team fee, just the monthly charge. Although, the monthly charge may turn out to be slightly more expensive, they are not significantly more compared to seasonal team fees from other clubs.

Free recruiting seminars

Discounted camps and clinics

Direct access and invites to some of the best recruiting camps.

The PP post mentioned there are no parents and affiliations with ANY rec league, and therefore, the Madlax coaches can remain objective. To my knowledge, there aren’t any other clubs that can claim this. Most have local rec coaches (i.e Great Falls, Vienna, Chantilly, etc.) coaching the teams.

At the youth AA level (u9 – u15), every team is competitive, and finished in the top tier of NPYLL (top 5). The next closest club was Next Level with 2 teams in the top 5 and VLC with 1 team in the top 5.

The teams are consistently good each year, at least since we’ve been involved 3 years ago.

When you factor in the workouts, the discounted team camp/ clinics, and the extra attention by full-time employees, we feel we get more for our money at Madlax.

I should also mention, this is not meant to be a comparison of clubs, so please don’t respond with “oh yeah, well my club does x, y, or z.” Since the price of Madlax has been questioned in this forum and others, I’m simply outlining the reasons why, for us, madlax is worth the additional expense.

Ok we get it Madlax is whats wrong with youth sports, How much longer must we hear about this Da__n email and how bad our owner is. We get it, now get over it. We are not going anywhere. If you can start a program and have 17 or so teams that play at a very high level please start it today and send me a email. I will be waiting! The owner will not go off on my kid like he did this kid and his family because if we where to quit the team I would walk up to him or call him to let him know we where leaving and explain why we are leaving. Like the adult that I am. I do not tell you how bad it is you are babying your kid.

Ok we get it Madlax is whats wrong with youth sports, How much longer must we hear about this Da__n email and how bad our owner is. We get it, now get over it. We are not going anywhere. If you can start a program and have 17 or so teams that play at a very high level please start it today and send me a email. I will be waiting! The owner will not go off on my kid like he did this kid and his family because if we where to quit the team I would walk up to him or call him to let him know we where leaving and explain why we are leaving. Like the adult that I am. I do not tell you how bad it is you are babying your kid.

This is simply an incredible series of e-mails and provides an extreme example of everything that coaching youth sports should not encompass.

Whether this sequence of e-mails has been editted in any form is secondary to some of the language used by Coach Cabell Maddux including:

• You have no clue how this lacrosse world works. Wow. You have really screwed him. And by the way it is a big deal and I will let every one of his teammates know. His teammates will hate him for years for quitting and playing for a rival club. Trust me on that.
• If I had any clue which I didn't until right now I would have kicked his butt off the team for not being committed. I dont need Ryan or your craziness. I would much rather work with a kid who is tough and grateful.
• Hey ungrateful quitter....
  Your former teammates and coaches, who hate you now, can't wait to get a piece of you Saturday when we play vlc.

Surely, this requires more exposure and commentary from the community.

You are an insipid fool. Regardless if the family spoke to him in person, on the phone or via email, nothing justifies a response like that.

This wasn't an isolated episode. He has done the same thing to several other families. Thank God we have Madlax years ago for a better program. Hope you enjoy paying $1,500+ extra dollars a year for that Academy. LOL.

I think what is missing here is confirmation that this is real. This forum can be 100% anonymous yet no one has come forward to confirm or deny these allegations.

I think that is suspicious on two fronts. If it is NOT true MadLax specifically Cabel should be screaming foul from the highest hill. If it is TRUE where are the other players who have suffered the same attacks.

This appears to be something requiring a deeper look.

Well the evil email must not of scared to many kids away from the evil madlax. There was 85 kids at the U13 and somewhere around 65 at the U15 try outs yesterday. Just thought you all would like a update.

There is only one coach that you have a problem with not all the coaches. I am aware you are judged by the company you keep but to say that all the coaches in the madlax program are like the owner is way off base and kinda messed up. I would like to invite you out to any madlax practice or game. Then you can come back on here with a informed thought not just hearsay and a bad email by the owner.

There is only one coach that you have a problem with not all the coaches. I am aware you are judged by the company you keep but to say that all the coaches in the madlax program are like the owner is way off base and kinda messed up. I would like to invite you out to any madlax practice or game. Then you can come back on here with a informed thought not just hearsay and a bad email by the owner.

I think there is a difference between over reacting or babying kids, and desiring to play somewhere that your children's interests are more paramount. As for other places to play, Next Level Lacrosse in Bethesda has a lot of players from north VA on their teams. They fell off for a few years but they have some really top notch former college and MLL players that coach their teams now, and they have their own facility to do training in. I've watched their teams play mad lax teams and they may lose to them early in the fall but by the spring they frequently outperform them which suggests superior coaching and training.

That is absolutely correct. VLC has some very good 2015 and 2017 teams, but have been unable to glue it together at the youth levels. They dropped U-11 alltogether this Fall after fits and starts and coaching turnover.

My comment on the youth teams are spot on. The U-11 program was a debacle that was shut down, and the current U-13 and U-15 teams strain to hang on at the AA brackets, and often play A brackets now to be competitive. Full disclosure: I had a kid play on a VLC U-13 team, he was not one of their best players on a so-so team and we moved to MadLax and are happy.

The VLC 2015 team is terrific, and the VLC 2017 team is too. As U-15s this 2017 VLC team won the Delaware MVP and has some first flight players including four players already weighing ACC offers. They have unquestionably the best attack player, the best midfielder and the best goalie in the area all of whom also go to Landon and are weighing offers from every top D1 program right now, so look out for that high school team in years to come.

But let's not confuse two high school teams with a youth program. At the youth level VLC has some work to do.

Living in the present, the VLC youth program can not compete with the AA teams. Period. U15 was pounded by Madlax and didn't win a game in the NPYLL tourney. u13 played in the B bracket. Furthermore, if the deadspin article hasn't had an impact on the madlax teams, which judging from how well the teams did this fall (13 winning npyll tourney, u15 and 2017 indisputably still the best team in the area as evidenced by their record), then it's not likely to, nor will an article in the Washingtonian.

So quick to judge - for all you know my son plays on VLC.

Hard to argue with cold, hard facts without resorting to insults, isn't it?

NPYLL posted the scores to each game and the WINNERS of each division.

Pots calling kettles black. The owner of the BLC could easily be the topic of this thread about a self interested and mean club lacrosse owner. Basically he collects dues and places his teams only in his own tournaments. Cha ching. He only types the kids who are part of his circle of parents who kneel before him and tell him how great he was and pay $600 a pop three or four times every year to go to his "showcase" events. Cha ching.

These BLC tournaments and showcase events are diluted in terms of college coach attendance for valid reasons. One reason is he is yesterday's beauty queen who goes on thinking he is the it and the now. He only invites other club owners who kneel before him and will do anything to keep his local rivals down (Breakers, FCA). Another reason is quite possibly college coaches have finally figured out there isn't a reason to go to his tournaments or showcases because there are other more organized and all-inclusive venues for top teams and players to play. At the Fall UMD classic and in the Philly tourneys there were possibly over a hundred college coaches attending. At a BLC tournament you have to strain your eyes to count half a dozen, plus the proverbial IL plant journalist who hypes BLC's own in tourney write ups. Second, there is a lot of growth in lacrosse but it ain't in Baltimore. Everyone in that county plays over decades and today you are seeing the best players aspiring to play for other clubs over the Crabs. If you want your kids to have the best chance to play college lacrosse, ten years ago you had no choice but to worship at the BLC altar. Today you are actually better off somewhere else.

Maybe Cabell is a terrible guy and a self interested operator, but it is hardly fair to point this all on MaxLax. There are club lacrosse problems right up the road.

Sorry your FCA team doesn't get invited to Crabs tournaments. Get over it.

The stuff you wrote about him in the first two paragraphs isn't true, so I won't bother addressing it. In terms of college matriculation, Crabs 2016 has 8 college D1 commitments. Between VLC and BLC 2016, they have a combined 18 college commitments. The ability of the Crabs and now VLC to get kids in college programs is unparalleled.

But this has nothing to do with the owner of Madlax. He publicly in writing threatened a kid and his parents just because he wanted to leave. Can you really justify that on any level?