CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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As CoBL prepares for its first “full” season since its relaunch, it’s still growing bigger and better than ever before. The organization is nowhere near full capacity, in terms of staff size, fundraising levels, and more
That’s why we’re excited to announce that starting Saturday, Owen McCue will return to the CoBL staff as our full-time assistant editor, taking the second-in-command role with the organization. In this position, he’ll assist with everything from coverage to foundational growth, becoming a major part of CoBL as we grow bigger and better than ever before.
“We’re thrilled to have Owen back with City of Basketball Love, and to be such a major part of our organization moving forward,” CoBL founder and Editor-In-Chief Josh Verlin said. “There was no one else I’d rather have to help me run CoBL in all aspects, from guiding our journalistic mission to working with our student writers, growing our social media presence, and helping us run even more events and camps, all of which will greatly benefit the Philadelphia basketball community.
“Owen’s presence will immediately allow us to cover more games and players, help more young journalists, and write more stories than ever before.”
A 2018 graduate of Temple University and product of Methacton High School, Owen previously spent the 2017-18 season as CoBL’s assistant editor, then a part-time position. In his nine months with the site, he was a major asset, proving to be a terrific journalist and colleague, with an open mind and strong work ethic and a propensity for telling great stories.
For the last three-and-a-half years, he’s served as a sports reporter and assistant editor for the Pottstown Mercury and PAPrepLive, covering the Pioneer Athletic Conference and other area high school sports, including the area’s boys and girls basketball teams.
With extensive writing, photo, design and social media experience over the last four years, Owen is excited to bring a diverse set of skills and experiences to help impact CoBL in a multitude of ways. He can be found on Twitter @Owen_McCue.
“It’s been very fun for me to see the growth of CoBL from afar over the past couple of years,” McCue said. “Josh has the site in a great place right now, and I’m so thankful he’s tapped me as someone who can help see where we can take it moving forward.”
McCue covered the Owls’ men’s and women’s basketball teams for The Temple News while a student at Temple, where he studied journalism, and later covered the area’s prep and City 6 programs with CoBL and later the Philadelphia Inquirer before his time at the Mercury.
“There really is nothing better than the hoops community in this area, and I’m unbelievably excited to once again be fully invested in covering it,” McCue said.
With McCue joining the CoBL staff as its assistant editor, Christy Selagy is moving into a new role as our College Editor. In this position, she’ll oversee our college coverage, working with our college interns as well as our staff writers and contributors to provide the most well-rounded coverage possible of the City 6 and area Division II and Division III programs.
Of course, none of this happens without community support. CoBL is in the middle of its first major fundraising push; we’re aiming to raise $120,000 annually to support our staff and events, and provide the best coverage in our 10-year history. As we are a 501(c)(3) organization, all donations are eligible for tax-exempt status.
Please visit our support page to see how you can donate and help us continue to add to our staff and provide more and more coverage of Philadelphia-area hoops — including South Jersey, Delaware, and more!
CoBL is also looking for high school and college students who’d like to contribute to the site during the 2022 offseason, 2022-23 season and beyond, for both paid and unpaid positions. No prior sportswriting experience is necessary for our unpaid internship positions, but applicants do need to demonstrate a solid grasp of the written word and a willingness to learn. Prior experience is necessary for paid contributor positions.
Anybody interested in either should send us an email: cityofbasketballlove@gmail.com, with a resume and a couple writing samples attached (samples can be of the non-journalistic variety for those without prior experience).
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City of Basketball Love (CoBL) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused around the coverage of high school and college basketball in and around Philadelphia. Founded in 2012, the site has become known as one of the top independent sports coverage websites in the entire Northeast, with an award-winning team of correspondents who cover boys, girls, men's and women's hoops in the Delaware Valley year-round.
In addition to its mission to cover amateur basketball as thoroughly as possible, while shining a spotlight on the region's student-athletes, CoBL also serves as a proving ground for young journalists, with over 150 high school and collegiate writers who have honed their skills with the organization over the years. CoBL alumni have gone on to work as journalists and other communications professionals, working for news organizations, professional sports teams, non-profit foundations, and more.
Since 2014, CoBL has also run offseason and in-season events, camps and clinics, helping develop the next generations of ballplayers and helping expose them to high-level instruction and collegiate coaches. It entered into its current structure in 2021, when it also expanded to cover girls’ and women’s basketball.
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