The TSP Team enlists a group of passionate Philly sports writers and fans who share their opinions, information, and insights into the world of Philadelphia Sports. We are always looking for talented and passionate people to join the TalkSportsPhilly Team!

{Click on Team Member image to pull up articles posted:}

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Christopher Leomporra is  one of the Founders and President of TalkSportsPhilly.com.  He is referred to and goes by the nickname of Leo from friends and on the TSP site.  Leo has an extensive background in playing multiple sports competitively and is an avid collector of sports memorabilia. Leo often writes about all the Philly sports teams, conducts interviews and covers sporting events and games for TSP.

Christopher has a long history in the Information Technology field and has over 20 years experience.  He has worked for many Fortune 500 companies as a I.T. Consultant and Trainer of Software packages.  He has traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe training Financial Information Systems for the markets. In his career, he has trained over 10,000 people on the subject of computers and the Internet.  He held several professional certifications for computers and helped design and maintain TalkSportsPhilly.com.  He also maintains all Social Media sites for TSP.

Christopher graduated from LaSalle University in Philadelphia and is proud to be a LaSalle Explorer.  He is a fan and a big supporter of Big Five basketball in Philadelphia. Leo has lived in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, Los Angeles/Hollywood, and Honolulu, Hawaii in his lifetime.

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Mike Haftman has been a regular contributor for TSP since January 2011. Based in South Jersey, Mike H. has written for MLBlogs and The Iladelph. While the Phillies are Mike’s primary passion, he does make his opinions known about all of the Philadelphia sports scene.

Mike follows all levels of baseball and claims to be the first member of the Antonio Bastardo fan club back in 2007, though he can’t back that up. He loves to write about and interact with the passionate Philly Sports fans. While still learning to handle the whole Twitterverse, you can follow him on Twitter: @MikeH_TSP

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Amy McGinnis grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her father is the one who first introduced her to Phillies baseball when she was a preschooler. He exited her life soon after and essentially took baseball with him. She attended West Chester University, where she met her future husband, who renewed her love of the sport. While studying to become a high school English teacher, professors encouraged her to write.

As it turned out, she didn’t like teenagers very much, and decided that she would prefer to teach young students to write well rather than work with older students on undoing years of bad habits with grammar, spelling, and punctuation. And so, an Elementary Education major was born. At age 23, she married the young man who brought Phillies baseball back into her heart. The marriage ended, but this time, she took baseball with her.

The game has seen her through some tough times, providing much-needed consistency and distraction. In the past thirteen or so years, being a Phillies fan has become a way of life for Amy. Ten years later, she is now a very proud mother of three lovely daughters, all of whom love Philadelphia sports. They will tell you that the happiest days in their mother’s life have included their births and meeting Cole Hamels. Amy enjoys writing about Phillies baseball almost as much as she enjoys watching it.

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Emily Phung slaves the day calculating numbers in the wonderful world of finance. In the evening & weekends,sports saves her tomboy soul.  She is a sports junkie to the extreme.  Into athletics, Emily can be found taking her angst out on the jiu jitsu mat, getting an adrenaline rush by skydiving, surfing/snowboarding to finding namaste on the yoga mat.

Emily is also an avid runner who has even coached blind athletes through the Achillies Track Team. Emily particularly loves watching football and hockey and enjoys writing about it for fun.

Emily’s secondary passion is volunteering.  She has volunteered as well as event planned a lot of charity events for some of Philadelphia’s most influential athletes. Emily also loves to travel in her free time and has lived in London, Zurich, Istanbul, Baltimore, DC, Boston, LA, NYC, and Philadelphia.

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Sam Shipley is a graduate of Neumann University.  Sam is took up Communications as his major with his focus on journalism and radio.  Before getting in here as the Sixers writer here at TSP, Sam would write articles on his free time because of how much he enjoyed doing it.

He eventually made a profile over at ProSportsDaily.com which is a blogging kind of site where fans interact, and he began to post his articles over there just to get some feedback from others. Once they began to tell him how much they would like his articles he realized that he could really do this and put more focus into writing.  He began to pay more attention to minor details of games, paid attention to press conferences a lot more, and began to get a habit for “breaking news”.

Sam’s Facebook page is like ESPN, all of his friends say this because all of his post are sports related with breaking stories or headlines.  The truth is since he was little he has been a sports fanatic and this is just my true passion.  Sam wants a job in sports after he graduates and wants to make it in this industry.

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Bill Furman, (Philly Pressbox), grew up in Delaware County and currently lives in Chester County. I have been a diehard Philadelphia and Penn State sports fan starting in 1964 when I saw my first Phillies game at Connie Mack Stadium. I was also at Franklin Field as a kid in the famous “Snowballs at Santa” game.

My first job as an 8th grader was as an usher at the historic Palestra. Life doesn’t get much better than that!! I had an opportunity to see Wilt Chamberlain play live for the 76ers as well as all the great players that have come through since.

My favorite sport is whatever season it is!!! I also coached high school football and baseball for years and actually coached a player that made it to the NFL and the major leagues. Now that I’m finished coaching and the kids are grown I spend my spare time collecting sports memorabilia.  You can follow me on Twitter as well @PhillyPressbox

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Jim “Chet” Chesko began writing for TSP in September 2013. Chet is originally from the coal region (Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania), an alumnus of Penn State University and a long-suffering Philadelphia sports fan.

Most of Chet’s career has been in radio and related fields, having worked for WPST, KYW (via Metro Networks), Bloomberg, the old WPEN and – most recently – The Wall Street Journal Radio Network.

True fact: One friend recently labeled Chet “an albatross to Philly sports teams.” Case in point: the Phillies were 2-5 with Chet in attendance in 2013. Back in 2011, when the Phils won a franchise-record 102 games, they were 2-7 when he showed up. The last few Eagles games he attended? You can guess the outcome. He’s still hoping to witness an Eagles’ Super Bowl title in his lifetime.

Despite all that, Jim/Chet remains very passionate about his favorite teams and enjoys writing about them, too – the good, the bad and the ugly. A relative newcomer to that Twitter thing, Chet can be followed there if desired … @Chet_JimChesko

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Kyle Lutz is 25 years old and currently resides in Medford, NJ. Kyle is a die hard Philadelphia sports fan, whether it be for the Flyers, Eagles, Phillies or Sixers. He enjoys not only writing about sports, but talking about it and collecting sports memorabilia as well.

He currently not only writes for TSP but SB Nation and Bleacher Report as well.  Prior to this, he worked/wrote for Rowan University’s school newspaper, The Whit, as a full-time writer. 

Kyle also ran and written for numerous blogs of his in the past.  His passion for and knowledge of the four major sports is incredible, unbelievable, and unmatched.

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 Mike Pantaleone is a father of 2 who currently resides in Pennsylvania. Mike is a die-hard Philadelphia Flyers fan and his passion for the game of hockey is unmatched. Mike has always had a passion for writing, and a few years ago he landed a writing gig with Bleacher Report.

He harnessed his skills with Bleacher Report, and even had some of his articles featured on NHL.com, CBSSports.com, CSNPhilly.com, SpectorsHockey.net, and Philly.com.

After leaving Bleacher Report, Mike joined up with TalkSportsPhilly, and for a short time was also a contributor for Sportsnet.ca.  Additionally, Mike has interviewed former players, such as fan favorite Ian Laperriere, and appeared on “Propper Hockey” featuring Lou Tilley and Brian Propp.

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Jeremy Bonnette lives in the Olney section of Philadelphia. He is a recent grad of West Chester University with a B.A. in Communication Studies with concentrations in PR/Social Media. 1st Generation Grad. Favorite Color is Blue.

Sports, gaming, food, and writing are Jeremy’s passions, so he puts his craft into writing. Jeremy plans to expand his career and writing in the future, so keep an eye on him thru Twitter @Bonn_fire and other social media outlets.

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Additional TSP Authors:

Christian Klemash

Ryan Waterman

Sean Francis Smith

Robert Waterman

Jesse Meza

Mary Flanagan

Hanks Corner

Chris Pierce

Brandon Pemberton

Nick Bramante

Robert Fetsick

John Gallante

Jimmy Screnci

Harry Klemash

Scott Dargis

Craig Cohen

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Events Coordinator and Marketing:

Currently Open…Director of Marketing (TSP) Mary Flanagan

Loren Wolf (PhillyBabes)

(Internships Open/ Please Inquire)

Graphic Designer:

Jason Delifus

Collector’s Corner:

Stephen Mahoney

Sports Memorabilia and Autographs:

The Sports Cave

Signs and Banners:

Brian Eddy (Cinn-City Signs)

TalkSportsPhilly Babe of the Year:

Kourtney Reppert  2012

Sarah Clayton  2013

Loren Wolf  2014-15

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Join the TSP Team!

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