Originally Posted by Anonymous
I'm not a crab parent. My kid would likely not make the crabs. He's young for his grade and still filling out, and although he has some high level skill, he likely wouldn't be get picked for a crabs team -- bigger, stronger, faster. We play for a competitive program in Baltimore and we'll wait and see how it goes.

That said, if you are discussing programs which have turned out some incredibly successful players and prepared them for the next LACROSSE level, there isn't another program in Baltimore with an equally successful track record... Period. The crabs are mercenaries... They pick the very best in their class and they play the very best... And their kids move on to play great lacrosse for prominent schools... Period. If that's how you define success, then the crabs have everyone beat...Period.

"Left for a better program". I doubt it. There is always more to the story. My kid plays for one of those "better programs" and when I meet a family coming from the crabs... Inevitably there is more to the story.

McClernan "Never played college lacrosse" so he must suck... Uhhh .... Professional sports and business in general is chock full of people who create winning organizations and never played the game at a high level. My opinion --- a lot of these guys over 40 who were lax all stars and coach lax all teams would not have played the game at the same level if they were college athletes today... Look at them... And then look at the rosters of D 1 today. The game has changed.


This post was obviously written by Ryan McClernan. I don't define better as being on the best club team winning the most "ships" as King Crab loves tweeting about. I define it as player development and there are programs doing it better with specialist coaches at positions like FoGo and goalie. Want specialist instruction at Crabs? Go to a clinic or camp. There isn't any doubt Crabs spent most of the last decade kicking everyone's teeth in and placing many more players into college than all others. That said, all others locally were not around 10 years ago and many like FCA were not around even 3-4 years ago. Look how much that gap closed even in the past year at the youth levels. Yes, Crabs ogle and market to get the best players from other programs to come over. Paul Rabil was a Crab? Yes, when he was finishing up high school. The signature Crabs player started somewhere else. But now, that seems to work less or not at all. Years of arse kissing later Crabs didn't get the Breakers or FCA Baltimore area commits to come over and these are kids who organically came up at those programs and are ACC, Big 10 or other big program commits. The Crabs tribal dance over being the 800 pound gorilla for 10+ years is at best misleading. For most of that time they were the only animal specie in a very small jungle. And it again comes down to how people are treated. My Kim didn't get cut, he wanted another program with better player development because winning 'ships on a high school club team does nothing to advance his game. Yes, team mommies ask about former Crabs. Some kids cut, but a growing trend is they just leave to go elsewhere for some reason...friends, coaching preferences or club philosophy change. And sometimes there is a lot more to the story, and that is usually that Ryan is disliked and not fogotten quickly enough for treating people poorly or unprofessionally. Kind of like the Madlax pounding, you hear something once maybe you look past. You hear it over and over, and...

Ever notice how Crabs are always outraged on this thread and turn the bully fast? Yeah, that works out great in a youth sport for a long time...until something better comes along and is available. Like Breakers, FCA, etc all of whom can now compete with or beat Crabs youth and HS teams on a given day