City of Basketball Love

One of City of Basketball Love’s co-founders, Josh has been running CoBL since its inception on June 2, 2012. He currently serves as the organization’s President of its Board of Directors, as well as Editor-in-Chief of the website. In that role, he oversees day-to-day operations, mentors the site’s staff and guides its journalistic direction, leads fundraising efforts, helps with CoBL’s events and camps, and much more.  

Less than a year after helping start CoBL, Josh made the site his full-time job in early 2013 after leaving Temple’s Beasley School of Law, developing it into the area’s go-to source for high school and college basketball news and information. Since then, he’s covered thousands of games and events while mentoring well over 100 high school and college students who have contributed to CoBL over the years. He has also guided the site to receive six honors in the 2021 Keystone Awards, in its first year as a member of the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. 

In 2021, Josh led CoBL in the transition from a for-profit company to a non-profit model, giving up ownership of the company and founding its inaugural Board of Directors, truly dedicating the site to its mission of bettering the Philadelphia-area basketball community by helping both the student-athletes who play as well as those who cover the sport.

A 2012 graduate of Temple University with a degree in broadcast journalism, Josh received his Master of Science in Communications degree (with an advertising focus) from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communications in 2022. He currently lives in Havertown with his wife, Aurora, and their two cats, Luke and Dinah.

Follow Josh: @jmverlin

A 2018 graduate of Temple University and product of Methacton High School, Owen joined CoBL as its full-time assistant editor in the summer of 2022. He previously spent the 2017-18 season as CoBL’s part-time assistant editor. In his role, he assists our editor-in-chief with everything from coverage to camps, mentorship and fundraising, helping grow the organization from the ground up.

For the four years prior to rejoining CoBL in 2022, he 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 brings a diverse set of skills and experiences to help impact CoBL in a multitude of ways.

Born and raised in South Philly, T.J. graduated from Penn Charter in 2006 and attended Earlham College in Indiana, where he played basketball and majored in philosophy. After a year teaching in Thailand, he returned to Penn Charter as a HS English teacher and boys JV & Varsity basketball coach, where he taught for 11 years.

T.J. joined the Swarthmore College Men's Basketball program as an assistant coach in 2019. He is also the general manager of Pro Skills Basketball Philly, and works as a basketball skills trainer throughout the Philadelphia area. He joined CoBL in the summer of 2022.

Chad Graham is originally from San Diego, Ca, but has roots in the city. He relocated to Philadelphia shortly after graduating from Howard University in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the hoops culture in the city. Chad is passionate about scouting, player development, and recruiting. When he began writing in 2020, he primarily covered Philly, but he’s since expanded to Delaware, Central Pa., the Lehigh Valley, and New Jersey. 

Senior Contributors

Kevin Callahan covered college and Big 5 basketball for the Courier-Post Newspaper from 1983-2016 before going freelance writing, including for Sixers.com, joining CoBL during the 2019-20 season. He played point guard for the Ursinus College 1981 Final Four team and 1982 Final Eight team after playing in the South Jersey all-star game as a senior at Camden Catholic High School. A long-time CYO coach, including coaching St. Joe Prep’s all-time leading scorer Steve Vasturia at St. Mary of the Lakes, ‘Cal’ was inducted in 2015 into the South Jersey Basketball Club Hall of Fame.

Kevin Cooney has worked as an award-winning sports journalist in the Philadelphia region since 1994, covering high school, college and professional athletics. Kevin won three Keystone Press Awards and two Associated Press Sports Editors awards for his work at the Bucks County Courier Times and Doylestown Intelligencer from 1996 to 2017. He covered the Big 5, Villanova’s run to the 2016 NCAA Championship, the Phillies run to the World Series in 2008-09, the Eagles in the Andy Reid/Chip Kelly era and the Allen Iverson-era 76ers. A Father Judge and Drexel graduate, Kevin resides in Northeast Philadelphia with his wife Bessie, stepson Joseph, stepdaughter Katie and his two dogs Finley and Fergus.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rich is a graduate of Temple University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. He joined CoBL in 2015 and has written a variety of stories ranging from the Philadelphia Catholic League title game to Top-25 college basketball matchups. Over the course of his career, Rich has had his work published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Delaware County Daily Times and ZAGSBLOG.

Jason Guarente has written for the Reading Eagle and Lancaster New Era for the past 20 years. He was fortunate to cover Lancaster Catholic's 35-0 team in 2003 and both of Reading High's state championship teams. He has written about Berks County's girls for the last three seasons and has worked as a beat writer for every sport imaginable since getting his start at the Daily Local News in 1996. The Lancaster resident has won Keystone Press and AP Media Editor awards and prides himself on writing about the people more than the games.

Mitchell Northam grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but lives in Durham, North Carolina now. He’s a voter in the AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll and a member of USBWA. His work has been featured at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Orlando Sentinel, NCAA .com, The Next, Pittsburgh Sports Now, SB Nation, Sports Illustrated and WUNC. He’s a graduate of Salisbury University.

Andrew Robinson has spent more than a decade covering sports - primarily soccer and basketball but a little bit of everything else too - at various levels, starting in college with Penn State's award-winning student newspaper The Daily Collegian while graduating with a degree in journalism. He then spent two years with The Gettysburg Times, spending much of his free time putting his history minor to good use. Most recently, he worked for Montgomery Media, the Lansdale Reporter and the Norristown Times Herald as a sports writer under the PA Prep Live banner from 2014-2021.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football and basketball since 1992. He's covered Kobe Bryant, Jameer Nelson, Tyreke Evans and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. He's broken national stories on local pro athletes like Carson Wentz and began writing for CoBL in July 2021. He is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America and can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito.

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Contributors

Ryan Coyle grew up in Willow Grove (Pa.), where he attended Upper Moreland and was a four-year starter in the basketball program, finishing in the top five in program history in assists. He is entering his senior year at Misericordia University in Wilkes-Barre (Pa.), where he's also a four-year member of the basketball team, and is majoring in Sport Communication. He grew up going to games in the Big 5 with his dad and looks forward to covering the Philadelphia basketball scene as part of the CoBL team.

Missy Light Dougherty is a lifelong Philly sports fan and ovarian cancer survivor who currently works in athletic administration at Delaware County Community College. Upon graduating from Elizabethtown, Missy spent several years teaching and coaching high school basketball. After earning a master’s degree in sport management from Neumann University, she worked in athletic communications at Haverford College. A Havertown resident, who can often be found in Sea Isle, Missy is thankful for the excellent English teachers she had at Merion Mercy Academy, who instilled a love of writing, as well as for the opportunity to be a contributor to CoBL! 

Jeff Griffith has been writing and creating content since he was a junior in high school in Downingtown, PA, back in 2014. Jeff got his start with CoBL — and has remained involved with is coverage for the better part of the years since — before furthering his education at Arizona State University, where he covered ASU’s football, men’s basketball and baseball programs, and also developed a reputation for accurate NCAA Tournament “bracketology” projections. Now based out of Indianapolis, Jeff works full-time in marketing while managing several contract and freelance roles on the side, both in sports and in performing arts and entertainment.

Jared Leveson lives over the Delaware River in Princeton, N.J. He graduated from Syracuse University, majored in History, and got his start with CoBL in June of 2022. Jared’s non-traditional path to sports journalism began during his senior year at Syracuse when he wrote his Distinction Thesis on the American Football League’s rise to prominence, its competition with the National Football League, and how the new league affected American antitrust laws and culture. As an avid New York Jets and Mets fan, CoBL allowed Jared to hone his writing skills and combine his love of storytelling and sports.

Sean McBryan is a multimedia sports journalist with experience at both traditional and modern media organizations. He started his sports writing career at the Reading Eagle newspaper and many blogs. Sean is a graduate of Penn State and Syracuse and a Pennsylvania native. He loves telling the stories of others and is a noted sports and coffee geek.

Meghann lives in West Hartford, Conn. and is currently a student at Villanova University in the Class of 2023. She played basketball at Conard High School (Conn.) and holds the single-season and single-game records for 3-pointers made. After arriving at Villanova, Meghann remained connected to basketball by writing for The Villanovan and found a passion for sports journalism along the way. She is excited to gain more experience through writing for CoBL.

Liam is currently a student at George Washington University (class of 2024) and went to Conestoga High School. At GW, he is studying International Affairs and Journalism/Mass Communication. He has worked in sports media for roughly a year and has written about soccer, basketball, and lacrosse for the GW Hatchet. He has always loved sports and telling stories and is excited for the opportunity to combine the two with CoBL.

Matthew Ryan lives in Bethesda, Maryland. He is currently a student at Villanova University (class of 2024) and plans on majoring in Communication with a specialization in Journalism. After college, he plans on continuing my career in sports media. He has worked in the sports media field for about a year and loves it! In his free time, he loves hanging out with his family, dog, and friends, as well as watching sports and relaxing.

Jerome began writing in 2017 while attending Penn State University. Originally, he wrote about music and other arts and entertainment subjects, but eventually began writing about sports, too. While in State College, he covered a variety of sports, including basketball, volleyball and lacrosse for the student-run radio station. Jerome began writing for CoBL in 2020 after spending years reading the site. After graduating from Penn State in 2019, he wrote for the Premier Lacrosse League in 2020, covering their Championship Series. In addition to writing for CoBL, Jerome also works in marketing for a financial service company.

Zak currently lives in Blue Bell and is an incoming freshman at he S.I. Newhouse School of Communication at Syracuse University, after graduating in 2022 from Wisaahickon High School. He's been a huge sports fan his entire life and his freshman year, he became a huge high school basketball fan. He went to many games in the area and eventually started to cover some games for CoBL in 2021. He has a passion for basketball and loves to write about it. In college, he'll major in communications and pursue a career in sports journalism/media. 

Kayla is a senior student-athlete at Moravian College. She plays on the women’s basketball team and is studying business and sports management with a minor in communications. Kayla has a passion for basketball and creative writing. Her career goals include working for a Division I athletic department or a professional sports league after earning her MBA from Moravian.