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They are talking about the MD Cannone not Carolina...

I thought this was the Crabs thread??

You are correct, A friend told me that he heard the Crabs took a bunch of kids that were a year older to the Ocean and barely beat a team from New [lacrosse] to win the tournament and then played the same team a few weeks later with the kids who should have originally been on the team and got run off the field, did anyone else hear about that? Is that true?

think it's in this thread because there isn't a Cannons one, probably cause it's not worth starting one since they're no good? I guess you can always click that little x in the corner of your computer screen if you don't want to read it though... ;-)

Please tell me you have this wrong! It cant be true! I suspect the Crabs beat the Team from LI with a group of players playing up in age. That's the Crabs way! And after the game the very well mannered soft spoken Long Island parents gave all the Crabs parents a big group hug along with many accolades! Get your facts straight!

Yes, at least 2- 2019 Kids in the spring season were added to the 2020 team for Beach lax. It's the Crab way!!!

It may not be and hopefully it isn't true, heard it second hand so they could have misunderstood what was said. I would find it hard to believe in a game with the honor and tradition that game and culture of lacrosse has, that any coach or organization would try this or that anyone would allow their child to be involved in something like that....I really hope my friend was wrong, would be really sad if this was true.

It was 5 kids from the 2019 team not to mention they also had the holdbacks!!

many kids who were proper age didn't get on the field because of the holdbacks

And many kids on T91 didn't see the field at Mile High either...who cares? Tell your kid to hit the wall, hit the gym and get better so that it doesn't happen again. If your kid is a great player it's hard to keep him on the bench.

The WYSL - Team 91 issue is different for the championship game. If it's true that one kid did not get in until less than five minutes to go in a blow out, that is a crappy statement to make for respect of the team concept and sacrifices families made in a fairly short window to attend.

The game was not close after the first eight minutes. Everyone there DVRed or watched the game on the ESPN app/site, but those kids had no chance for that moment of having their name called or seeing their image on TV. How many 13/14 year old lax players have the opportunity to be on TV? How many of those players will play D1 in a game that will make a national broadcast? Would two or three changes of possession have made that much difference in the outcome of the game - maybe it's 15-9 instead.

Tell a 12 or 13 year old kid to hit the gym. I am missing the part where this philosophy in the youth game is to compete well and make it fun for the kids involved. You can still accomplish great things and keep those two objectives in mind. No wonder youth lacrosse isn't growing anymore.

You had me right up to the last sentence.

The T91 kids that sat were 2020 rostered players. They are part of the team and presumably know and accept that to be on T91 they may sit and are okay with it or they would have left a long time ago. The Crabs players that sat at Beach Lax were rostered players on the 2020 who were pushed aside to allow the 2019 rostered players brought down for the tournament to play. Several of those 2019 players have been back playing with their 2019 team this summer. Big difference when you bring in "guest" players and push your regular team aside.

If the kids on the team are not complaining perhaps they know that this is the deal for them to be on T91. It is not our call to make.

We can certainly call out Team 91 for the horrible sportsmanship (30-0!) and laughable attention to only their top 5 players.

I don't agree with playing as elect few starters the entire game, however, they didn't cheat or bend the rules. The issue of some kids only getting a few minutes a game is an issue between the kids, parents and the coach.

Glass houses....

Deflect much? If you pick apart sportsmanship and attention to only some players, you need to lump yourself in the pot. Benching rostered players and playing unrostered older kids is not up there with high prized qualities. At least this team beat yours with age appropriate players. They just happen to do it on national tv.

The reality of tournaments is that there are mismatches. Simple human decency let alone sportsmanship would result in subs being played to make the game less of a blowout. These are 13 year olds not high school or college players. That is why Team 91's treatment of their reserves is not just an internal team matter.

The goals of youth club lacrosse should be for the kids to have fun and improve so they can be better in high school and college.

Unfortunately we have moved to where the goal of club lacrosse is to increase to glory and financial well being of the club and the club owner. The kids are just a means to that end.

As a rec lax coach, the "playtime" discussion is something that comes up with several parents every year. It's a tough situation, but all players are simply not created equal. On a club team, you would assume that the players much are closer in skill than in rec, but that is unfortunately not the case, so I completely understand uneven playtime - it's unfortunate, but coaches are trying to balance a win (which all the kids and parents want) along with even play (which a few parents and their kids probably want). That said, when you are winning 30-0, you not only should be playing everyone, you should be letting them try out whichever position they always ever wanted to try, because no team is coming back from a beating like that!

Simple human decency and sportsmanship should also prevent holdbacks and playing down, but they don't.

I agree. Both the Crabs and Team 91 hold themselves out as being the best the sport has to offer when in fact the adults involved seem to be in a competition to demonstrate the worst in youth sports.

In the end, nothing is going to improve until other teams tell teams like the Crabs and Team 91 to go play with themselves and stop participating in tournaments and leagues where they are involved.

When did Hogan Hershey become such an uncompetitive lineup?

Hogan events are for the masses.
Not elite events.
Well run though

You sir are a d-bag and what is wrong with the entire scene. "For the masses"? Probably never played a competitive game in your life.

Tryout season is coming so . . .

- How many are considering coming to the Crabs tryouts and why?

- How many are considering NOT coming to the Crabs and why not?

Aside from Madlax and Hawks, there are not many teams from the typically dominant clubs.

Hogan's tournaments ARE very well organized. Hershey was great this year.

Summer Exposure had a lot of good programs. From hotbeds, Igloo, Legacy, Hawks, Bethesda, Breakers, Koopers, Greene Turtle, among others. From non-hotbeds, good programs from Texas, NC, MN and FL.

Hershey was more geographically diverse and plenty of teams from hotbeds, but, true, not AA teams. Makes sense that AA teams want to play each other. Bit of a chicken and egg problem, but Summer Exposure shows that they can easily add AA divisions. Hershey sure was great for us, a team from nowhere, to go play a bunch of hotbed and non-hotbed teams from bigger cities, versus winning a regional tournament. Plus regional tournaments don't seem to actually enforce age and grade rules like Hogan's.

- How many Crabs are trying out somewhere else?

Hogan seems to be taking the age thing seriously, good for them. As others have pointed out, very frustrating for normal teams to show up at a tournament and get blown out by an elite team or a team playing the age game.

At the end of the day this is a business for them, and if they can offer their customers a good product - fair competition - I'm sure they will do just fine. Everyone does not need to get steamrolled by Crush or deal with the Crabs holdbacks to feel like they had good competition.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with participating in a tournament without Team 91, Crabs, Loonies/”dominant clubs” attending. My son plays on a mid-level caliber team that just won Hogan Hershey 2020A bracket, got a t-shirt and had fun with no allusions D-1 coaches were there scouting them. Did have one tough game against Club Blue All-Stars 2020. No clue where the competition (LWLC, Harvest Lax Academy/Rochester) fit in all these “rankings”.
I’m sure some teams/parents came away disappointed and others were fine with what it was – a youth lacrosse tournament.

Not- hard to teach kids about fair play, good sportsmanship etc. and then let them be on a cheating team full of holdbacks whose only purpose is to win at all costs. No thank you. Not worth 4 years of college "glory".

Hogan's Summer Exp. had some very strong teams attend when it comes to 2021. Hawks, Igloo, BLC, NC Cannons, and Koopers. The "masses" from that tournament would and have beat many of the stronger teams in the same age bracket.

Get over yourself. Kids reclass in other sports all the time, and nobody cries about it.

If the tournament has grade based divisions, then you have nothing to complain about. If you don't like it, only play for a club that plays in age based tournaments.

Or is it that junior is just not a good enough player... let's be honest, Dad.

The whole crabs cheat because of holdbacks thing is getting a little old and played out don't ya think???

Predictable response crabbie dad.
Hard to believe not everyone wants to be a Crab? Some parents do have other hopes for their kids including good character and morals and are strong enough to stay clear of the type of team Crabs is. Each team has a personality and that team is not a good match culture wise for our son and family. The poster asked, I responded. Do not need your opinion to know what is right for my child.

Crabs cheat not because of holdbacks which are questionable ethically and what their teams are built on but because they bring down rostered 2019 players to play a tournament with 2020s. . Next tourney same kids are back playing 2019. Until they stop with their behavior the topic will never get old.