Laura Sarria
Sports Editor
ESU has been around for 125 years. In those years, several impactful individuals have come and gone.
Sadly, one of these individuals who was part of the ESU community passed away at age 87 – his name was Kenneth “Ken” Olin Sisson.
“It was hard to hear,” said Fred Richter, one of Sisson’s players in 1967 at ESU. “He was very important to me.”
Sisson, husband of Jerry Sisson, father of five, grandfather of ten, and great grandfather of three, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, Oct. 23 in his home state, New York.
Sisson coached basketball for about 40 years.
Of those 40, between 1963 to 1983, Sisson coached and guided ESU men’s basketball team for 19 seasons.
“He [Sisson] taught us the game,” said Richter. “Everything we became is because coach pushed us to do well.“
Richter became a coach right after finishing at ESU and is now the women’s coach at DeSales University.
During Sisson’s coaching career, he led four consecutive 20 seasonal wins.
In 1992, Sisson received a Meritorious Service Award from the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA).
Two years later, he was named the Rochester Area College Athletics (RACA) Coach of the Year.
Not only was Sisson the coach who was at ESU the longest but was also inducted into ESU’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.
He was described as a “quiet people person” by Richter.
“He was very strong but wasn’t a yeller or screamer,“ said Richter. “He was truly a role model.”
Sisson was known to be a caring person and helping people out as much as he could.
“He was a person that cared,” said Richter. “He tried to recruit my son and cheered him on.”
“His last email to me was wishing me luck,” said Richter.
Sisson also founded the Pocono Classic Tournament — an annual event that used to be held on campus for 51 years.
In addition to him coaching the men’s team, Sisson taught Health and Physical Education for 20 years.
He coached at Lafayette College after coaching at ESU and was the athletic director and coach for Roberts Wesleyan College in New York.
Sisson retired from his coaching life at 64 in 1995.
A service was held in his memory with his close family and friends on Oct. 27 at Aldersgate United Methodist Church.
For more information, please visit the obituary found in www.poconorecord.com
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