AGAWAM – Lance Faniel likes to think about Daniel P. Trant while on the basketball court when he reflects on the friendship they shared before Trant’s death in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

In fact, he was with Trant the night before he was killed.

Trant, a Westfield native with a large, close and extended family, was living on Long Island, N.Y., with his wife and two sons and had recently celebrated his 40th birthday when he went to work for the last time as a bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald, located on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center’s south tower.

Faniel, of Broad Brook, Conn., whose relationship with Trant dates back to their high school as opponents on the basketball court playing for different teams, regarded Trant as a brother and considers the entire Trant family his own family.

“When I first heard the name Dan Trant it was from my coach at Springfield Tech. Coach said, ‘Watch out for this kid Dan Trant.’”

Springfield Tech won that game against Westfield High School, but it was Trant’s prowess on the basketball court that kept the Bombers competitive.

“He was a perennial power in the state,” Faniel said. “They lost that game, but he put on quite a show. He played with passion, courage and confidence.”

Faniel and Trant had the opportunity to play together at Clark University in Worcester where it was assumed even before he began that he would be the team starter.
“That was his legacy at Clark,” Faniel said.

On Sept. 7, Faniel was among 100 golfers who gathered once again at Oak Ridge Golf Club in Agawam for the Daniel Trant Classic Golf Tournament, which funds the Daniel Trant Memorial Scholarship. It was there that he recalled his lasting friendship with Trant and the last night they spent together on Sept. 10, 2001.

“I got tickets to the Red Sox/Yankees game at Yankee Stadium,” he said. “I drove to Long Island, we picked up his sons, and we went to the game. He was wearing a Red Sox

shirt, and the guy taking tickets at the stadium joked that I was going to have to be Dan’s body guard that night.”

The Red Sox and Yankees did not face-off that night. Instead, it rained and Faniel and the Trants went back to Trant’s house to watch football.

Faniel still had the ticket stub from that game.

“Who knows, if the game hadn’t been rained-out, maybe he wouldn’t have gone to work the next day,” he said. "At times I felt if the game had been played how things would have changed.”

Faniel spent the morning of Sept. 11 drinking coffee with Trant’s wife and looking at picture’s from his friend’s 40th birthday party “when the call came” and they turned on the television to see the World Trade Center towers streaming black smoke.

“We all had hope that he got out,” Faniel said. “People started showing up and the phone started ringing.”

The golf tournament, Faniel said, is yet another opportunity for him to reflect on Trant’s life and their friendship, just as he does anytime he picks up a basketball or in the days leading up to Sept. 11.

“I tend to reflect more at this time of year,” he said. "The tournament is an opportunity for me to spend time with his family, carry on his legacy and do something positive.

"Whenever I pick up a basketball and shoot, I think of him and reflect while looking at the court because that’s what started our relationship. It’s a tough day to deal with at times.”

Daniel Patrick Trant