Alum Spotlight: Gabe Hauari

ADAM CHEEK Staff Writer

Former scribe for The Commonwealth Times Gabe Hauari, now a VCU alumnus, has been making major professional strides since his 2017 graduation.

A sports writer for the publication until December of last year, Hauari reflected on covering the NCAA basketball tournament in 2016 and 2017, which he considers one of his favorite memories from his time at the paper.

“It was a really good experience and I learned a lot,” Hauari said.

However, Hauari — along with several other members of VCU’s sports media — were put through the wringer in 2017 during that same tournament.

After VCU’s first-round tournament loss to St. Mary’s College of California, Hauari and others from the CT and WVCW Radio decided to head home early — but they were sorted onto different flights and wound up spending six hours at John F.Kennedy International Airport. While they eventually made their way home via a flight to Washington, D.C. and a subsequent early-morning Uber ride, Hauari did not have fond memories of that experience.

“It was definitely memorable, but not exactly in a good way,” Hauari said. “Not the Commonwealth Times’ fault, it was kind of all on us.”

After his departure from VCU, Hauari traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to intern at the Courier-Journal. He trained as a digital producer, learning about search engine optimization — also known as SEO — and how to optimize information for social media and the web.

Hauari also covered major sporting events during his three-month tenure in the Bluegrass State.

“I covered the Kentucky Derby and a PGA Tour event they had in a nearby town,” Hauari said. “[I also] covered recruit-