It was late on a Thursday or technically early on a Friday when a man in a shirt and tie thrashed around a news van. �You knew this would happen,� the crew members said. The man yelled back in jest, �Get out of my van!� Seconds later the Newton, Massachusetts-born sportscaster was on camera coolly reporting for Fox 5 New York that Aaron Boone�s home run in the bottom of the 11th had decided which team went on to the World Series; the Yankees had beaten the Red Sox.
�It actually wasn�t that bad, I�ve been doing this so long, and I�ve been away [from Boston] for so long. A lot of that [rivalry] phased out when I went to Dallas,� said John Discepolo, a Hofstra communications alumnus and lifelong Red Sox fan, who was WRHU�s sports director for two years before he graduated in 1994. He had loved the Sox/Yankees games despite the diet of hot dogs and pretzels that came with them. And he had especially loved the last game. �It was the best game I�ve ever seen. To see the pride of the Yankees, the pride of this town, to be a part of that, to be covering something of that much importance, it was amazing,� he said. His voice was loud and perfect and fast�the only kind suitable for a lead sports anchor.
A news director had once asked Discepolo to play up his Italian heritage to create more of an on-air personality. Discepolo refused. When interviewed, he played down the event that had received attention from at least one New York chapter of The Sons of Italy and from the Daily News. His personality seems plenty exciting without the pretense. His enthusiasm for sports is overwhelming. Daily News readers thought so when they gave the Fox 5 lead sports anchor a nod when they listed their All-Star team of newspersons. (Discepolo did not make the team cut, but for a man who has been reporting for Fox 5 New York for less than two years, to be mentioned is still an honor).
Friend and author Adam Shandler, who will still hit up a Hofstra football or lacrosse game with Discepolo, also thinks highly of his sportscasting abilities. In an interview about his novel �Coaching Ira,� Shandler, who did play-by-plays for the radio station when Discepolo was sports director, called the anchor �ridiculously talented.�
Discepolo is also ridiculously hard working. There are only two days a year that no professional sports are played, the day before the baseball All-Star game and the day after. �Sportscasting is my passion�Everyone always told and still tells me I should go to news, there are more opportunities in news�but I wanted [sports], said Discepolo. �And when you want it, you have to want it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year�and you can�t sit back and take rejection or take failure.�
In his Hofstra days, sports reporting had been just as important to him as it is now. His two favorite college reporting memories were both when he was covering sports for WRHU. The first, when Hofstra upset New Hampshire at Homecoming in 1994 and the second, his most favorite the last football game he covered for WRHU. It was the last game of that 1994 season, against Delaware; Wayne Cherbet, who had been a teammate of Discepolo�s when Discepolo was a punter for the Dutchman, scored two touchdowns. The team lost the game on a missed field goal and thus missed the playoffs too; but for a non-scholarship team like Hofstra to tie Delaware, one of the better division one teams, the game was an exciting sign of Hofstra�s football future. �It let people know that Hofstra was the new kid on block,� said Discepolo.
Discepolo credits his time at WRHU for preparing him for the intensity and immediacy of his future in news coverage, and added that being sports director at WHRU, �prepared [him] to just make decisions and not look back sometimes.� Right or wrong, in the world of broadcast there is no time for dwelling on things�and there is no such thing as luck.
That�s what professor Nancy Kaplan told Discepolo when she pulled him aside, his sophomore or junior year, he said. She said that �Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.� It was this Discepolo had in mind when after spending a year reporting in Albany, he left and took a job with KDFW Fox 4 in Dallas. Dallas was the first big break of his career; it was a jump into a major market.
It was the kind of jump he recommends to journalism students. �I�ve heard so many guys say, �I�m from New York. I�m going to stay in New York.� And I�ve never met a single person who has had that happen,� said Discepolo, who believes that going away and perhaps eventually coming back to New York, is a far more probable plan. �My advice to any aspiring broadcaster is to get on the air somewhere. Just get on the air! Go to the smallest markets. And the best time to start looking for a job is when you already have a job,� he said.
As far as his future in broadcast is concerned, Discepolo is not looking for his next job. �I love New York; it�s a great town,� he said, but he added that he would �always entertain an opportunity whether it is in sports or news.� And of course, he should say that; he should always be ready for change. In this business, luck is when opportunity meets preparation.
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