Alumni Spotlight – Frank Bodani ‘87

For the past 20 years, YAIAA and Penn State fans have anticipated the wisdom and analysis of sports writer Frank Bodani with their wake-up coffee. While they might take his work for granted, he does not. He loves what he does, is thankful for the path that brought him to it, and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

But Frank did not arrive here as a fulfillment of any life-long dream. In fact, it wasn’t until his SHS junior year that he gave writing a thought as a career choice. “I took a journalism class with Cheryl Land on a whim,” he recalls, “and part of the curriculum was working on the school newspaper. It was only then that it hit me: ‘Here is something I could do for a living.’”

In addition to working on the newspaper for two years, he played baseball and was an outstanding cellist. He performed in district and regional orchestras and credits his experience as a student musician as one of the strongest influences on his later success. “My experience with (orchestra director) Mrs. (Kathy) Yeater taught me self-discipline and responsibility,” he says. “She was very nurturing and kind to me.”

As graduation approached and his interest in journalism piqued, he chose Duquesne University. It had a strong communications program and offered him an opportunity to work on the school paper as a freshman. For his final three years, he was the school’s sports editor.

He also worked as a stringer and weekend correspondent with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and further honed his writing skills in the summers working in the sports department of the York Dispatch covering Central and Susquehanna baseball leagues.

Frank graduated from Duquesne in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a concentration in communication and emphasis on print journalism. He then returned to York and continued his work as a stringer, for the Dispatch, but when a full-time opening came up in the news department, he was offered the job – with one catch; his “try-out” was writing an in-depth article on legislative re-districting.

“I was in a panic. I knew absolutely nothing about political science, let alone re-districting,” he remembers. “It was like writing a college term-paper.”

But it must have been a good term paper: Frank got the job. He started as a “general assignment reporter,” meaning that he worked on whatever was hot news on any given day. His most interesting assignment was an interview with then-candidate Bill Clinton, who was on York on a campaign swing. But Clinton schedule’s was such that he could only talk to reporters during his morning jog with the Secret Service. In the best shape of anyone in the news room, Frank drew the assignment.

Although he liked the variety and unpredictability of the news pool, his first passion was for sports writing and when an opening came up in that department after three years in news, he took it.

Now with the York Daily Record, his primary assignment is covering Penn State sports – predominantly football – and he loves it. He attends every home and away game and has covered 14 bowls. The paper also encourages him to find his own interesting features and he enjoys that challenge and variety. He has written pieces on topics ranging from Appalachian Trail hiking to shark fishing.

He also embraces the emerging technology of the news business: social media, short video postings, blogs, and on-line chats. “It’s not ‘the paper’ anymore,” he explains. “It’s ‘a news organization.’ I also like having the freedom to write without being constrained by available print space.”

Frank still plays the cello, but his schedule prevents him from playing full-time with the York Symphony as he did when he returned to York after college. It’s mostly church, nursing home, or an occasional wedding performance now. But he retains his membership in the local musicians union, seeing “cellist” as a part of his identity.

He maintains strong family connections to Southern York County through his parents and grandparents. He also made the wise choice of marrying another Susquehannock graduate, Michele Boyd ’86.

Frank and Michele, an expert wildlife photographer, enjoy nature trips together whenever they can work them into their busy schedules..

Thanks to Frank Bodani ’87 for making us Warrior Proud.