By Sakinah Ahmed
Every week, young athletes in the Trenton area learn more than jump shots and defense strategies at the Fan Favorite Club. They build their confidence and character through the innovative youth basketball program and a community that believes in their potential.
Founded in 2013 by professional basketball player and entrepreneur La’Keisha Sutton, the program has grown from humble beginnings to an organized operation in Hamilton. The organization now works with a core team including Director of Operations Romone Dunnagan and Coach Jeff Allen.
In an interview with The Streetlight, Allen said that the Fan Favorite Club worked out of public parks and gyms for the first few years. In 2019, they opened up their facility in Hamilton. Allen first learned about the program when Sutton came to speak at his high school. He said his biggest inspiration is the children who come and play from the Trenton area.
“Growing up I didn’t have any resources like this, so for me, it’s to give the kids a mentor to look up to,” Allen said.
Having gone through the school system in the Trenton area, Allen’s experiences have led him to become a role model who strives to support the youth.
“At the end of the day, I get to work with my friends every day and we get to do what we love. We get to teach our life lessons through basketball,” said Dunnagan.
The club’s offerings extend far beyond basketball. While weekly classes run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they have open gym on Saturdays. Throughout the day on Saturday, the club offers games for the youth such as chess, checkers, video games and other board games. They also host parties in the gym and holiday clinics for kids to play when they are off from school.
Dunnagan says they want to “be able to give back to them [the Trenton community] because somebody gave back to us.”
“So many gave back to us, and being there for the community and the surrounding communities is really important to them,” he said.
For clients interested in other activities, Simone Bryant, who goes by Monie B, offers music video classes that teach media production and photography. The club also has internship programs for youth to develop their skills in areas like coaching and secretarial work.
For Dunnagan, the biggest challenge when working with youth is teaching the value of persistence. He says he aims to “get the youth to understand there’s a process. There’s a journey to all this. If you want to be as successful as you say you want to be, you cannot skip steps. You’re go- ing to have to go through something in order for it to mean it, just so it can mean a little more.”
Since its founding, the club has helped place over 20 students in college who have gone through its programs at different levels.
When these students come back during the summer, Dunnagan said “there’s so much energy in the building and it’s just flying around the room.”
Looking ahead, the Fan Favorite Club’s board aims to implement a summer camp program and expand its reach.
“We just want the good news of what we’ve been doing to be put out there,” Dunnagan said. “Hopefully the sponsorships come in.”
For Dunnagan, the club’s success story offers a broader lesson.
“Anything is possible. You find a group of people that have the same vision as you and … you can move mountains,” he said. “We survived the highs and the lows of the business in general and we’ve made it out on the other side.”