Sam Ouhaj wasn’t always a sports fan.

Now, he’s looking to make a career out of it.

You won’t find him on the football gridiron, the soccer pitch, the basketball court or the baseball diamond. But he hopes you’ll find him on your television screen.

Ouhaj, a senior at Newburgh Free Academy will attend Notre Dame in the fall to study sports broadcasting and journalism. Looking for schools that had Division I football program, his other choice was Boston College, but the Irish won out.

“I had always followed the Notre Dame football program,” he said. “I just wanted to go somewhere where there was going to be a big emphasis on sports that would help me grow my career in the future.”

He made his visit to South Bend in early March, barely a week before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in earnest. He was immediately taken by the school’s architecture, including the Golden Dome, and the lineup of his trees.
He also saw the Touchdown Jesus and the Rudy statue.

“It felt like home,” Ouhaj said. “That’s where I was meant to be. I know that’s one of the popular things that you say, ‘this is where I belong.’ I did that with a couple of other campuses. But this was the one.”

Ouhaj said the school’s women’s basketball team is one of the best and it has a good hockey team. He’s going to do a double major in sports broadcasting and journalism.

“It’s so awesome to go to the school and see some of the best athletes in the world come in and I am beyond thankful that I got accepted.”

Ouhaj began following sports to bond with his mother’s boyfriend, Felipe. He wasn’t into sports, himself, at the time, but Felipe was a huge sports fan and he fell in love with the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees and New York Knicks.

He also found he enjoyed watching some of the TV personalities, such as Stephen A. Smith, Chris Carter and Colin Cowherd.

“All these sports personalities made me want to do what they do,” Ouhaj said. “I want to create discussions because of what they said. We all have different viewpoints and sports allows me to get all this knowledge and I can use that to contribute.”

He’ll get the training while he’s at college. But he also has another key qualification: the gift of gab.

“I love to talk, and I love to socialize,” Ouhaj said. “The ability to communicate is my favorite thing that we’ve been given. It’s so interesting to see how we can express ourselves.”

There has been plenty of expression in the last three months, starting with the pandemic and extended into the Black Lives Matters protests after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin.

Ouhaj’s family hails from Morocco and he said he doesn’t face the same struggles.

“I may not experience some of the struggles,” he said. “I am very fortunate and understand we all come from equal backgrounds. I see where people come from at Newburgh and see what’s going on. We’re all equal at the end of the day. We’re people and I feel that’s how we should look at ourselves. We are human beings. We are people. We are one.”

He has also taken advantage of the COVID-19 lockdown to pick up three writing jobs from sports websites, giving himself the opportunity for exposure, and possibly launch his career.

He’ll miss Newburgh, but he recognizes that his hometown has started him on his path toward future success.

“It’s a stepping stone and a time of growth,” Ouhaj said. “I’m going to miss everything about Newburgh.

Newburgh has given so much to me. And at some time, I want to give Newburgh everything. I want to give everything it’s given me back to it.”