By Chris Vaccaro

FOX 5 New York’s John Discepolo started his broadcast career as sports director at Hofstra’s WRHU radio, and he keeps the Pride close to heart whenever the University is mentioned in one of his segments.

From his time as a punter on the football team to broadcasting sporting events, Discepolo made his mark in Hempstead, and was happy to return to New York in 2002.

“I came to Hofstra because it has a really comprehensive communications department,” said Discepolo, who transferred from Assumption College in Worchester, Mass. “You can do TV, radio and write. Being given that chance really appealed to me. It let me focus on all communications.”

He said it was a long shot for him to make a return to New York, but was floored when he found out.

“I’ve always had a fondness for New York,” said Discepolo, who always keeps his eye on Hofstra sports.

Randy Hillebrand, a professor in the School of Communications who taught Discepolo, said he was extremely happy when he heard about the WNYW offer.

“Talk about hitting the jackpot,” Hillebrand said. “It doesn’t get any bigger than that in local television.”

Discepolo, who was All-New England as a punter at Assumption, said one of his best athletic moments outside of Hofstra was being ranked as high as sixth in the nation at his position.

Discepolo was on the Pride team when it made the jump from Division III to Division I-AA, and recalls a game at Montana as the highlight of his career.

“It was a great moment to represent the school out there,” he said.

Although Discepolo only spent one year playing for former head coach Joe Gardi, he felt it “was an experience.”

“He always had a line for everything,” Discepolo said. “He made a lot of guys what they are today.”

Gardi said he is very proud of where Discepolo has gone with his career and speaks to him occasionally. His fondest memory of Discepolo’s playing career was in his first game with Hofstra when he averaged over 40-yards per punt, a dramatic increase from past years, which was around 30 yards.

In Discepolo’s one year of eligibility, he had 26 punts for 936 yards and a 36-yard average, the second best Hofstra average during the 1990s.

From the classroom, two professors from the School of Communications made a big difference for Discepolo: Nancy Kaplan and Hillebrand.

“Nancy was a huge motivator,” he said. “[Randy] was always on our cases to be on top of stuff. He wanted to make sure we were prepared more than anything else.”

Hillebrand knew he had a future professional on his hands from the first time he started working with Discepolo.

“John was a typical go-getter when he was here, getting involved in anything and everything going on in Dempster Hall,” Hillebrand said. “Usually it was sports related, and even then you could tell he had the drive and ability to make it big.”

Discepolo said his best collegiate broadcast came during the 1994 football season, during a 41-41 tie, when Wayne Chrebet caught a record five touchdown passes against the University of Delaware.

With students getting involved in communications as early as high school now, Discepolo cited hard work and passion as the main ingredients to reaching his goals.

“Be prepared to work,” said Discepolo, who has a Bachelor’s Degree in communication arts. “It’s going to take time, sacrifice, travel and working for little or no money when you first get started. There is no such thing as luck in this business. Luck is opportunity meeting up with preparation. If you really have a passion for it, don’t quit and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it.”

Discepolo landed his first job out of college at ACTV in Arlington, Mass., where he anchored a high school football show called “Sportsline.” He was a one man wrecking crew, as he wrote, edited, and shot his own stories.

He later worked in Westchester, Albany and at a FOX affiliate in Dallas, and in January 2002 came back to New York.

“First it was News & Views at Hofstra, then WNYW,” Hillebrand said. “Then who knows what? The only thing left is working with a national organization. Can you spell E-S-P-N?”

Discepolo can be seen weeknights at 10 p.m. and Sports Extra every Sunday night at 10:30 on WNYW.