Luke Whitehouse
@Lwhitehouse12
As Tarek Fattal stepped onto the Springfield College campus for the first time almost 11 years ago, he had no idea of the journey ahead.
Fattal – who grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles – was out of his comfort zone when he arrived in Western Massachusetts. After spending the previous two years at Moorpark College in Moorpark, Calif.
Fattal transferred to Springfield with one goal in mind:
To play basketball for the Pride.
Fattal had grown a passion for the sport, and hoped to finish out his final two years on the hardwood at Springfield College while also studying sports journalism. Along with playing basketball, he always knew he wanted to have a sports-related job.
“I wanted to be a pro athlete,” Fattal said. “And then reality struck. I knew even though I wouldn’t be a pro I could still be involved.”
After arriving on campus and practicing with the team up until the first game, Fattal’s dream was crushed.
Employees of the NCAA told Fattal that he had no eligibility remaining. This frustrated Fattal, who had traveled all the way across the country to play basketball at the Birthplace, and was abruptly told “no.”
But Fattal, through his faith, became content with the decision.
“One of my friends said, ‘Man, 3,000 miles is a long way to find out you can’t play,’” Fattal recalled. “But the Lord had a different path for me.”
After realizing that playing basketball was no longer an option, Fattal honed in on sports journalism and sports media – and he began forging a road to his future after college. Although he couldn’t play basketball, it opened up time for other avenues. He announced the basketball team’s home and away games on the school’s broadcast, wrote for the student newspaper and joined the radio station, becoming president of the latter.
Fattal credits two of his professors, Kyle Belanger and Marty Dobrow, for pushing him and helping him in the classroom during his time at Springfield.
“(Belanger and Dobrow) looked at it like, ‘Hey, we got a kid from California. They came to this major, they learn, they track the educational aspect,’” Fattal said. “And so then, they became real life partners…and it wouldn’t have happened unless I went to Springfield College.”
When Fattal met with Belanger for the first time, Belanger knew Fattal was something special.
“He was the most put-together person, one of the most confident people I’ve ever met,” Belanger said. “The way he presented himself was of somebody twice his age “He came to my office and laid out his whole future to me the first time I ever met him.”
Fattal had already done an internship at Fox Sports, and was set on doing radio. But, Belanger, knowing where Fattal’s heart was, wanted to give him a full media experience at Springfield.
Although Fattal agreed to venture off his path of radio/broadcasting, he was a little hesitant at first.
But Belanger recognized the talent he had.
“I told him, ‘I want you to know that you will be a multimedia storyteller,’” Belanger said.
Over the course of the next two years, Fattal grinded in all aspects.
“Even though I had an emphasis on radio, I got to focus on all the tools in my toolbox getting sharpened,” Fattal said. “And that’s what makes Springfield College so great.”
Looking back, Fattal recognizes what that did for him and how crucial it was to have those skills.
“(Today), you have to be a multimedia journalist… you gotta know how to write, edit, shoot (videos), talk…all of it,” Fattal said. “It’s absolutely essential.”
Upon graduation, Fattal had been looking for jobs back home in Los Angeles.
About a year later, in the fall of 2015, Fattal joined the Los Angeles Daily News, one of the top publications in the country. Now, Fattal is covering the top high school sports from around the Los Angeles area, while simultaneously serving as the Daily News’s beat writer for the UCLA men’s basketball team. He also has been doing TV segments for the local CBS station for the past year.
But, to this day, Fattal remains his own biggest critic, which drives him to be better at everything he does.
“Over time, my writing has gotten better, of course, but I still feel like it’s my weakest skill,” Fattal said. “But every writer is like that, it’s kind of the competitor inside me. There’s always something I can do better.”
Despite being busy with TV segments, writing columns, game stories and going to games every week among many other duties, Fattal enjoys his job immensely.
“I’ve always made it important to me. I get to wake up and think, ‘Man, I’m writing about sports,’” Fattal said. “I’m talking to athletes, I’m calling coaches, I’m writing good stories and I’m impacting a local community…I’m an anomaly in a sense that I get to do what I love and never feel that I’m actually working.”
Fattal has recently started hosting Twitter spaces for high school sports – an online open conversation involving people interested in, or a part of, the high school sports landscape.
His Twitter page also contains something unique and humorous: his weekly, and sometimes daily “Breakfast Burrito Reviews,” inspired by Barstool Sports Founder Dave Portnoy’s pizza reviews.
“It’s non-sports related, but it puts you on the radar of people that otherwise wouldn’t see you,” Fattal said. “And then that’s how they connect with you…again if there’s a way to add your spin to something, do it.”
Because of this, Fattal has developed a sense of being different, something he advises others that are studying journalism to do.
“What worked for me is having your own flavor,” Fattal said. “Every time you have a chance to add your flair to your coverage, do it. If you’ve got an idea, do it. Because if no one else is doing it, it might be a space to tap into.”
(Photo courtesy of Tarek Fattal’s Instagram)