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CoBL announces Don DeLeo as new Events Director

10/20/2025, 9:45am EDT

By CoBL Staff

By CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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Over the last decade-plus, CoBL’s events have become not only an integral part of our organization, but also some of the best camps and team events in the entire Mid-Atlantic.

Now they’re under new direction, and we couldn’t be more fortunate about who’s taking charge.

City of Basketball Love is thrilled to announce the hiring of Donald DeLeo as our next Events Director. DeLeo takes over the position from Steph Garafolo, who took a full-time coaching job at Eastern University in August after two years of running CoBL’s camps and events.

A longtime fixture of the area’s high school and grassroots scene, DeLeo joins CoBL after spending the last six seasons as the head boys’ varsity coach of Hightstown High School in East Windsor (N.J.).

“I am beyond excited to be taking over as CoBL’s Events Director,” DeLeo said. “CoBL already provides an incredible platform to student-athletes in the Philadelphia area and beyond, and I’m looking forward to continuing to expand that platform and ensure CoBL continues to run the best events around.”

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Take our Survey: Area high school and grassroots coaches, we’d appreciate it if you could take a couple minutes to fill out a survey about CoBL’s event offerings. Click here to access the form.

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A 35-year-old South Jersey native, DeLeo currently lives in Mount Holly with his wife, Jillian, and their daughter, Stella. He currently works full-time as a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Camden Prep Mt. Ephraim Middle School.

During his time with Hightstown, DeLeo also served as the Director of Recruiting for The Hoop Group and then MADE Hoops, helping run some of the largest grassroots tournaments and camps in the entire Northeast. In addition, he’s been coaching with the NJ ShoreShots AAU program on the Under Armour Association circuit.

DeLeo spent six years at Hightstown (N.J.). (Photo courtesy Don DeLeo)

Before coaching at Hightstown, DeLeo served as head coach at Pemberton Twp. (N.J.) and also ran the DeLeo Basketball Academy, which included a dozen travel teams from elementary through high school ages.

All-in-all, he’s spent more than 15 seasons coaching at youth basketball from elementary school through high school.

“There isn’t anybody who could have been a more perfect fit for this job than Don DeLeo,” said Josh Verlin, CoBL’s co-founder and editor-in-chief. “I’ve known Don for the better part of a decade, and he’s always been hard-working and passionate about helping student-athletes in this area develop their games and increase their exposure to college coaches.

“I have no doubt that he will not only maintain the high quality level that the area has come to expect from CoBL’s events, as well as grow our events offerings, which should allow us to continue to thrive as an organization.”

A, 501(c)(3) nonprofit, CoBL has focused on the coverage of high school and college basketball in and around Philadelphia since 2012. Ever since its founding, 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.

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.

This fall, our 10th annual Boys’ Interstate Shootout and Girls’ Fall Classic were our largest team events ever, with more 175 combined participants over the span of two weekends in September. We also held our largest weekend of CoBL Exposure Camps in August, with just shy of 300 participants.

CoBL’s next events will be our in-season showcases: our boys’ showcase will take place on Dec. 5-6 at Exeter Twp. and our girls’ showcase on Dec. 13 at Downingtown West. We’ll release matchups and schedules for those in early November.