Phoenix, AZ.—The St. Theresa Life Teen program in conjunction with the Diocese of Phoenix announced that it will discontinue the XLT. The decision was made after determining that the additional investment of intensity put forth by all who participated in this ground-breaking semester would be overwhelming.

"While we believe that it is an extraordinary accomplishment to have created a new type of Life Teen in less that a year, we feel that it is in the best interest of all who are involved with the program if we were to take some time and go back to the regular Life Teen," says founder of the XLT, Eric "The Man" Westby. "I would like to thank everyone who was involved with the XLT, including the coaching staff, the fans, and especially the participants of the XLT, without whom this endeavor would never had been possible. We are proud of all that we brought to the Life Teen program, and the ways in which we revolutionized youth ministry."

Ryan "The Rock" Howe, director of operations for the XLT commented, "Launching a new Life Teen program in such a short period of time was a daunting and exciting challenge, but we gave it our best effort in what clearly is a difficult and challenging market. We had countless meetings with the Bishop dealing with this matter, and the decision was made to discontinue the XLT, in favor of a different style."

When asked to comment on this situation, a source close to the Bishop said, "I understand the amount of work that the entire XLT staff and participants put into this, but in the interest of everyone, we feel it is necessary at this point to go with a different approach to Life Teen. We feel that this is necessary because the intensity level of all who participated was so high, culminating in the first ever XLT Championship game, that the community felt that the XLT would soon grow too big, and then become out of control. Basically, once the XLT got started, we were afraid that it would never be able to be stopped."