IT'S ALLEN A DAY'S WORK
Crabbe gives back to his high school ... by saving it
LOS ANGELES — Allen Crabbe may not have a more meaningful moment on a basketball court than he does Wednesday when the court at Frederick K.C. Price III Christian Schools is named after him.
And it’ll only be fitting. He didn’t just attend the school, known locally as Price. He saved it.
Crabbe’s family founded and subsidized the school on the campus of Crenshaw Christian Center. And with it set to close for lack of funds, Crabbe proved it’s salvation with a six-figure donation.
“They put a lot of hard work and dedication into building that school,” Crabbe said. “I’ve had uncles, cousins, little cousins that still go there, my nephew still goes there. So me being blessed financially and in the position I’m in, you don’t want to see something my family put a lot of hard work and dedication in [close] when I have the financial means to help it stay open. Family looks after family.
“Family is priority in my life. Family comes before anything. … I really didn’t look at the bigger picture of everything, of everybody that I was helping. … Then parents were coming up to me saying thank you they didn’t have to take their kid out of that school to find another school in that area — which is a rough area. Faculty, I didn’t really realize how many jobs I was saving. I didn’t really look at the bigger picture, but after everything started to go down, it was pretty humbling.”
To call the school important to Crabbe’s family understates it. Crabbe’s aunt Angela Evans founded it, and — with his grandfather Frederick K.C. Price the pastor of the church — ran the tiny school under the church. It was named after Frederick and Betty Price’s firstborn son — Crabbe’s uncle — who was killed when he was struck by a car as a child in 1962.
FKCP — or simply Price — has a 100 percent graduation rate since 1996, and a 98 percent acceptance rate to four-year colleges, yet the tiny school largely serving South Central LA was on the verge of closing. Until Crabbe — making $18.5 million in the third year of a four-year, $75 million contract — pulled it from the brink last spring.
“I’m so proud and humbled by his decision to help the school. He attended there starting in preschool, at 3 months old, all the way through to high school graduation,” Crabbe’s mother, Cheryl Price, told The Post.
“I knew he wouldn’t want to see the school just go away. So like a mother would, I presented him with the facts, suggested the opportunity to continue a legacy and he said, ‘Tell her I’ll do it!’ I don’t even think he realized the import of what he had done at first. But little by little he would come to know it was an amazing thing. It really was a selfless act and I think he’s the greatest!” Essentially Crabbe has never drawn breath without FKCP a part of his life. At first admittedly awkward about going to his parents’ school, Crabbe eventually led FKCP to a California Division IV title in 2010, earning the state’s Mr. Basketball award. And after his coach vowed to retire his number if he made the NBA, his No. 23 jersey was hung up in 2015. Crabbe’s presence in the gym will get even bigger Wednesday when it’s named after him. Oh, and that coach? In keeping with the family theme, he’s Crabbe’s godfather. “I’m his godfather so I knew him early on, from when he was born,” MMike Lynch told The Post. “The cocoach relationship was one thing: I’vI’ve watched this young man grow on another level that goes beyond ththe court. For him to make a generous donation like he did to help keep the school open, that’s honorable. It just is. And I told him that.” Price has 35 staff members, all of whose jobs Crabbe saved. “My aunt was like, ‘What you did here with your success in high school and all that you did for the school, I’ll bless yyou with that opportunity if you wwant the court to be named after yoyou.’ I was like, ‘Of course. Why nonot?’ It’s cool,” Crabbe said. “For my grgrandfather to create his legacy — eveverybody knows him as the pastor in the church — it’s dope for me to crcreate my own legacy within the fafamily. Not in the pastoral route, but wwith basketball. “I set the tone for others growing up to realize that when you make it to ththe NBA and all that money you can mmake, it’s good to give back. It’s a realally humbling experience. Now with alall the work they’re putting into it anand all the things that are going to hhappen during the ceremony, it’s realally an exciting time for me.”