The expensive car pulled up and the hot-shot talent with the famous father stepped out of the passenger side door onto the Don Bosco Preparatory High School campus.
Just like that Leonte Carroo judged Darius Hamilton.
At the time, Carroo was waking up at 4:30 a.m. every day to make the 50-mile one-way trek from Edison to Ramsey for preseason practice with the freshmen football team. Hamilton, the son of an ex-Giants star, was ticketed for varsity as a freshman.
“I was like, ‘Who is this kid?’ and everyone was like, ‘That’s Keith Hamilton’s son,” Carroo said, laughing at an old memory.