Like any sports diehard, Cal High alumnus Kyle Bonagura spends time every day keeping track of scores, making season predictions, and following players’ stories.
The thing that sets Bonagura apart from most avid sports fans is that he gets paid to do it.
Bonagura, a 2003 Cal graduate, is a successful local sportswriter, and the new beat writer for Comcast Sports Network’s Bay Area coverage of the Golden State Warriors.
Before interviewing some of the wealthiest athletes on the planet, and being involved in some of the most successful sports franchises of all time, Bonagura got his start right here at Cal.
After three years on The Californian staff, serving as assistant sports editor as a junior and co-editor in chief his senior year, Bonagura went on to Washington State University to study journalism.
“If it wasn’t for The Californian and Mr. (Brian) Barr, I would have been a fish out of water,” said Bonagura. “I learned more from him than I did anywhere else.”
After three years at Washington State, he was offered his first position as a sports writer for the Bay Area News Group.
Since then, Bonagura has worked for The Tri-Valley Herald, Patch.com and CBS Sports Online, where he covered Stanford football and the San Francisco 49ers.
“He has always been involved in sports in one way or another,” said Cal teacher Greg Fortayon, who has known Bonagura since age 8, when they played little league together.
Bonagura’s passion for sports writing started well before high school.
“When I was in second grade, my teacher wrote a note to my mom saying I was a very talented writer,” he said, “but she wanted me to write about something that wasn’t sports for once.”
His mom, Cal High teacher Cindy Bonagura, remembers this story well.
“I remember his teacher writing me this comment back when he was at Bollinger,” she said. “He loved sports from day one. His first word was even ‘ball’.”
It was this love for sports journalism that propelled him into writing for a professional newspaper as young as his sophomore year in high school, when he got paid to cover local high school sports teams for the Tri-Valley Herald. This later helped him land his first full-time job out of college.
“I was very fortunate to have good relationships with the right people,” said Bonagura.
These connections helped Bonagura get in touch with editors at the Tri-Valley Times, where he covered EBAL from 2008-2010.
“I remember one of Kyle’s editors at the Times telling me that Kyle was as polished a sports writer as some of the full-timers,” said Barr, adviser of The Californian. “This didn’t surprise me at all because Kyle demonstrated true talent as a journalist early on.”
Bonagura’s work with papers in the area garnered attention, and online news company Patch.com approached him for help setting up high school sports coverage.
He helped them launch and maintain active high school coverage throughout the Bay Area.
Getting this on-line experience was very valuable to Bonagura, because of the direction in which he sees the field of journalism heading.
“You have to get experience online,” said Bonagura. “Social media is becoming more important, and so is having a strong website.”
Though the field is becoming more difficult to navigate, Bonagura, who has really embraced Twitter as a journalist, remains dedicated.
“I knew this is what I wanted to do, so I’ve made a strong effort.”
And despite the shift in his line of work, Bonagura still loves what he does.
“When I wake up in the morning I don’t dread work, I love what I do,” Bonagura said. “I’ve enjoyed every stop along the way.”
