Mike Drago

Founder/CEO/Sportswriter

Mike Drago has written about sports at every level for parts of six decades, most notably at the Reading Eagle for 38 years.

He has earned more than two dozen Pennsylvania writing awards for his coverage of high school football and basketball and professional baseball.

He has covered the Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies, the Reading Phillies and Penn State football, and chronicled the careers of notable Berks County athletes and future pros such as Lonnie Walker IV, Chad Henne, Donyell Marshall, Alex Anzalone, Michal Menet, Chris Finch, Ross Tucker, and Kerry Collins.

He has interviewed dozens Hall of Famers, including Mike Schmidt, Ted Williams, Pedro Martinez, Bill Walton, Mike Ditka, Don Shula, Bob Feller, Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken Jr., Willie Stargell, Reggie White, and Joe Paterno, as well as Reading High grads Lenny Moore and Chuck Thompson.

Mike once jumped center against 6-8 Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Harold Carmichael (an episode that did not turn out well).

He was courtside to cover PIAA basketball championships for Reading High, was there to write about Wyomissing’s unbeaten run to a 2012 state football title and has written about countless other state, district and county championships in baseball, soccer, softball and track and field.

Mike has written a virtual history of Berks high school football and in 2013 was inducted into the Berks County Football Coaches Hall of Fame.

Born in Baltimore, Md., and educated at the University of Maryland, Mike has called Berks County home since joining the Reading Eagle staff in 1983.

 

Sam Cavalieri

Sales Director & Correspondent

 

Susan Angstadt

Photographer

Susan Angstadt is a seasoned photojournalist who began her career in New York City. She went to Hunter College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She worked as a freelance photographer in New York for 14 years before returning to Berks County.

Susan returned to Berks in 2001 and worked at the Reading Eagle for 18 years as a staff photographer, earning numerous photography awards.

She currently lives in the city of Reading and runs her own photography business, Susan L. Angstadt Photography. She shoots for numerous colleges and universities, hospitals, non-profits, and various news outlets.

To see more of her work, visit: www.susanlangstadt.com.

 

Andrew Clauser

Correspondent

Andrew is a graduate of West Chester University where he earned a degree in Kinesiology and a graduate degree in Sport and Athletic Administration. 

He has been the owner of Fit This Way, a personal training business, since 2014. 

During his time in graduate school he interned for the sports information department at West Chester and in the athletic department at Wilson.

Andrew was born and raised in Reading and graduated from Holy Name in 2001. He currently resides in Wyomissing with his wife Amy, daughter Neva, and the world’s craziest little dog, Bette.

He has always been a follower of all Berks County sports; his favorite memory is witnessing Reading High win the state basketball title in Hershey. 

 

Chris DeAntonio 

Correspondent

Chris is a 2016 graduate of Kutztown University. He has written for NBC Sports Philadelphia, the Pottstown Mercury and the Reading Eagle, covering football, boys and girls basketball, softball, baseball, volleyball, and soccer.

He currently works as the Public Relations and Development Assistant at Prospectus Berco, a non-profit in Reading.

When he’s not covering sports Chris enjoys running, watching sports (for fun), and spending time with his family.

 

Matt Gaffney

Correspondent

Matt is a sales communications manager in the corporate sector. He graduated from Kutztown University with an English/Professional Writing degree.

He resides in Berks County with his wife, daughter and son.

Matt enjoys spending free time with family and his dog, Bowie, playing guitar, music, hiking, reading, listening to podcasts, and talking sports, TV shows and Quentin Tarantino films.

Covering high school football for the first time, he’s able to cross that off his “bucket list.” Next on the list: see a Wilco concert at Red Rocks and a baseball game at Fenway Park.

 

Matt Hagy 

Correspondent

Matt is a 2015 graduate of California University of Pennsylvania and currently serves as Director of Athletic Communications for Ursinus College.

He began his writing career as a staff writer and then Sports Editor for the Daniel Boone school newspaper . Matt covered high school football for the Reading Eagle in 2019 and for MikeDragoSports.com last season.

Matt was previously the Sports Information Director of Albright College for four years after beginning his sports information career as a graduate assistant at California University of Pennsylvania.

Matt is a native of Douglassville and graduated from Daniel Boone in 2011. He currently lives in Pottstown with his wife Kristen.

 

Joe Mays

Photographer

Born and raised in Berks County, Joe has been covering Wilson football since 2010 and began photographing games and events for the Bulldogs football team in 2011.

An avid amateur broadcaster, Joe and his co-host, Justin Raffauf, began a sports podcast together in Feb. 2011 which eventually led them to revive the old WilsonTV program, “The Bulldog Hour” in the summer of 2015.

Since 2018 Joe has photographed dozens of other games featuring Wilson athletic programs, including state, district and county championships. His portfolio also includes the 2016 Big 33 Classic.

Joe has been coaching youth football in the Wilson program since 2009. 

He resides with his wife Kelly and daughters Natalie and Hailey in Sinking Spring and works with his father and sister at their family business, Mays Sandwich Shop in West Lawn.

 

Sean McBryan

Correspondent

Sean McBryan started his communications career in 2017 with the Reading Eagle, shortly after graduating from Penn State.

He covered Berks County girls soccer, bowling and USL League Two’s Reading United, while also running the Reading Eagle Twitter account on football Fridays and helping update BerksGameDay. Sean has written for numerous sites including FanSided, Rookie Road and EasternPAFooball.

He recently graduated from Syracuse University with a M.S. in Communications and now covers basketball in the greater Philadelphia area for City of Basketball Love.

A Berks County Native, Sean graduated from Gov. Mifflin high school. He resides in Lancaster, where he works as the Lancaster County District Attorney’s media specialist.

Check out his portfolio.

 

John McCafferty

Correspondent

John recently graduated from Goldey-Beacom College with a degree in English Communications and a concentration in Media. He goal is to make a career in sports media. 

John has written for websites such as BrownsAccess.com and OhiovsEveryone.com and worked as Goldey-Beacom baseball social media manager. 

Recently, he picked up another writing role for Gridiron Heroics. 

John is a Lancaster native and 2018 Lancaster Catholic graduate, following his brothers Mac and Brandon, who also graduated from Catholic.

 

Phil Marabella

Photographer

Phil is owner/photographer of Philmar photography. He has been shooting Berks County high school sports for more than 18 years. 

He has served as the school photographer for Berks Catholic and Wyomissing for the past eight years.

Before switching to a photography career in 2017, he worked for over 36 years in the electronics industry.

Phil was born and raised in Shillington, graduated from Holy Name and currently live in Sinking Spring with his wife Stephanie; they have three children and three grandchildren. 

 

Mike Mitchell Jr.

Correspondent

Mike quarterbacked Wyomissing’s 1989 and 1990 Inter-County League championship teams and was inducted into the Wyomissing Football Association Hall of Fame in 2019.

He has coached football, baseball and basketball. He was named Coach of the Year six times during his eight-year stint in the Wyomissing girls basketball program and was named Berks Coach of the Year in 2002 when his Gov. Mifflin baseball team won a Berks championship and set a school record for wins.

Mike graduated from Moravian College with a B.S. in mathematics/secondary education, received his M.ED. from Gratz College, earned a principal’s certificate from Penn State Great Valley and a Superintendent letter of eligibility from Gannon University. He has taught and served as an administrator in the Gov. Mifflin, Wyomissing and Schuylkill Valley school districts over the past three decades.

Mike is retired from public education and is currently teaching mathematics at a charter school 

in Allentown.

He resides in Wyomissing with his four children: Courtney 23, Sarah 20, Michael 9, and Ava 9.

 

Hunter Phillips

Correspondent

Hunter started his journalism career covering the Minnesota Timberwolves for ZoneCoverage.com as a senior at Fleetwood.

He is currently a freshman at Reading Area Community College studying Communications.

Hunter, 18, has been a sports fan his whole life and especially enjoys watching the NBA, NFL and F1.

 

 

Jennifer Drago

Digital Director

Mike’s daughter Jennifer designed and built our website. She is a 2007 graduate of Holy Name (now Berks Catholic) and received a degree in Graphic and Web Design from Drexel University. She is now the Creative Director for the healthcare web development firm Fyra in Conshohocken, but her favorite job she’s ever had was in the upstairs ice cream stand at the Reading Phillies stadium, which had a great view of the games.