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Why Hamilton’s Kisthardt School has two names BY SUE FERRARA
La’Keisha Sutton attended the Nike Academy, where she coached alongside elite basketball coaches, player development coaches and NBA and WNBA scouts.
La’Keisha Sutton goes from Globetrotter to community mentor BY THOMAS KELLY
La’Keisha Sutton is a hooper, a serious basketball player who shares her skills, training methods, mindset and approach. A Mercer County native, Sutton was Gatorade Player of the Year while playing for Trenton Catholic Academy. She was the first recruit chosen by now-legendary coach Dawn Staley at the University of South Carolina.
After playing basketball overseas for teams in Finland, Ecuador, Germany and Bulgaria, Sutton played in the U.S. for the Harlem Globetrotters. The eternal point guard now directs area youth in basketball and more at the Fan Favorite Club on Whitehead Road in Hamilton. Using her college nickname, “Fan Favorite,” Sutton opened the training facility in 2019. De-
veloping great people, not just great players, has always been her goal. What is the Fan Favorite Club’s main focus? Fan Favorite Club is a safe space for youth in Mercer County that is designed and committed to providing affordable access to an indoor basketball court for development and
See BASKETBALL, Page 4
People who happen by the Hamilton Township School District elementary school on Harcourt Drive would rightly conclude they are in front of Kisthardt School. But walk through the front door, look to the left, and on the wall hangs a brass plaque designating the name of the school as DeCou. How did the Hamilton school district’s smallest elementary school come to have two names? First, land wealth, and second, dedication to the community. The land around Kisthardt School was once owned by two prominent Hamilton families: the Abbotts and the DeCous. The two families apparently sold land back and forth to one another. For example, the house that sits at 58 Soloff Drive is known as the Abbott-DeCou House because the Abbott family owned it, then sold it to the DeCou family. Eventually, the DeCou family sold it back to the Abbotts. The DeCou family also sold farmland in the area for new
houses. New homes meant children would need a school. In 1912, for a sum of $1,000, Peter Ellis DeCou sold property on South Broad Street to the Board of Education, where the district built a four-room schoolhouse. When DeCou School opened in the fall of 1912, it was already overcrowded. That’s because the eight-room Rowan School, now the Rusling Hose Company, had become overcrowded, so students were shifted to DeCou. Parents were not happy because the Rowan students were being shuttled to DeCou via trolley at a cost to the township of $2,500 for the school year. The district promised to address the issue, but it took nearly 40 years. By 1918, the world was weathering an influenza pandemic. Back then, like today, preventing disease became an urgent concern. So, in 1919, the Board of Education hired the district’s first school nurse. Enter 32-year-old Leona Kisthardt.
See SCHOOL, Page 9
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