LATINO SPORTS TEAM

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Nicole Michele Pérez is the editor and MLB reporter for Latino Sports. She has experience covering MLB games and events like Spring Training, regular-season games, All-Star games, the Postseason and World Series. Nicole graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2017 with a B.A. in Communications and earned a sports journalism certificate from the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. Nicole is Puerto Rican and Guyanese, born and raised in The South Bronx.

Maz Adams is a professional Sports artist and 2010 graduate of the prestigious Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He creates the art honoring the starters, relievers, and rookies in baseball for the annual LatinoMVP awards. Hailing from Canarsie, Brooklyn, New York, he has spent most of his life in New Jersey, but now resides in Pennsylvania. His clients include Topps, Beckett Magazine, The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, The Ed Lucas Foundation and the charities of Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Isaac Bruce, and Rod Carew. He is humbled and honored to use his unique comic-inspired art to help honor the brightest Latino athletes in the game today!

Julian Kyle Cintrón Pabón is an artist and creative director. He specializes in the documentation and organization of apparel at Latino Sports. He believes the relevance of the platform transcends sports news and, in its wake, has amassed an important inventory of Jerseys, tee shirts and other retro collectibles. “All of these items are a part of a larger story that is about pop culture rooted in the cultures of the South Bronx, which is a literal birthplace. Many of these pieces are one-of-a-kind, and it is important that they are framed this way.”

Julian has been a part of Latino sports since childhood; running, playing, and learning in the original Latino Sports Clubhouses.

William Coppola – Originally drafted by Oakland A’s 1968 #75 over all January draft. Long time special assistant to Tom “T-bone” Giordano who was Super scout and senior advisor to GMs of the Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves. Columnist for New York Sportsday, Bronx Chronicle and now Latino Sports. Has covered baseball, both amateur, college, minor leagues and MLB, college football, tennis, college basketball, Ironman events and soccer. Lifetime New Yorker and now covers the west coast. Based in Los Angeles exclusively for Latino Sports.

James Fiorentino has been creating original artwork for the oldest and most prestigious award given to Latino baseball players, the LatinoMVP award for over 15 years.  Since his involvement the Latino Sports award has become a major attraction for all winning players and teams. We believe it’s one of the most sought-after awards in baseball and James’ artwork is a major reason why. James has become one of the most well-known sports artists and watercolor painters in the United States. With art hanging in galleries and museums around the world, James has worked with countless legendary athletes across the field of major sports. His art and story have been documented by national media throughout his professional 30-year career. He has painted countless notables in the world from presidents and Nobel Peace Prize winners to military heroes and celebrities.

Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and co-editor, who has been with Latino Sports since 2003. He has covered countless New York Mets, Yankees, and MLB teams along with some of the greatest boxing matches over the years along with other pro and college sports events. He is an award-winning sports journalist and previously worked for The Associated Press, New York Daily News, Gannett, and other publications and hosted numerous radio and TV sports programs in a career that spans almost 40 years. Rich has tutored and helped forge many young writers.

Bill Menzel – Photo Editor for Latino Sports. Bill has been covering the local professional sports teams in the tri-state area since 1999. He has photographed many World Series games and all-star games as well as the Super Bowl. Bill is our Photo Editor and the lead photographer for Latino Sports for more than 10 years. Bill has also photographed celebrity entertainment, concerts, and everything to do with photography. We look forward to having Bill’s images continue to capture the essence of Latino Sports stories for many years to come.

Miguel Muñoz is a 16-year-old sportswriter based out of New York City, NY. He is our youngest writer, but his writing expresses a rising seasoned journalist.  He is most established as a basketball writer but has also written about a multitude of other sports, ranging from baseball to college football to club soccer. Muñoz is currently an intern and staff writer at Latino Sports.

Julio A. Pabón has been part of the family business from its early years and he continues to consult on the creative strategy for Latino Sports. He was one of the pioneers introducing video into the Latino Sports digital platform. Julio was our first videographer, chronicling our early Latino MVP Awards, player interviews and special events. He produced and directed “Pa Que Sepa”, a digital series of fun, in-depth interviews of rising Latino sports personalities. Julio was also an associate producer for the award-winning documentary, “Legacy of 21”. Julio is an award-winning Producer/Director with over 15 years’ experience in non-scripted, documentary, audio and video content. Among Julio’s credits are VICE Media, Netflix and most recently, Spotify where Julio created and executive Produced the critically acclaimed Podcast, “LOUD: The History of Reggaeton”.

Kimberly Pabón has also been involved with Latino Sports from its early years. She coordinated Latino Sports fashion shows promoting and advising on our first female apparel line, Latina Sports. Kimberly is a special advisor on all present, Retro and any future Latino Sports apparel.

Kimberly also worked on coordinating many of our annual Latino Sports Celebrity Basketball Games and is presently exploring ways to expand our brand in the greater New England, Boston area.

Robert Rizzo is a journalist and the co-editor of Latino Sports. He joined the team in February of 2022. His major interest is baseball. Robert is a passionate writer, who discusses trending sports news in MLB, NBA, NFL, College Men’s Basketball, Boxing along with Soccer. He graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz in May of 2021 and majored in Communications with a concentration of Organizational Communication, completing a minor degree in Geography.

Dan Schlossberg a lifelong North Jersey resident, is a former AP sportswriter who now covers baseball for Latino Sports, forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, and others. He covered the 2021 World Series and National League Championship Series in Atlanta. Dan is also a travel writer who he has won multiple awards for his work, including the first Journalist of the Year award given by Historic Hotels of America. He does two live travel shows, TRAVEL THURSDAYS and TRAVEL ITCH RADIO. The latter is now in its 11th season.

Juan Vene at the young age of 93, Juan is our most senior Sportswriter.  Born in Caracas, Venezuela, (Jan. 10, 1929.)  A veritable one-man army in Spanish-language baseball reporting, Juan Vene has been a broadcaster, author, sportswriter, columnist, and producer.  Vene was born José Rafael Machado Yanes and began his career as a reporter for Noticias Gráficas in Maracaibo, Venezuela. He has been publishing a daily baseball column for 61 years. We are proud to have Juan Vene, a true Hall of Fame candidate on our Latino Sports team.

Joseph Ferrara – Our newest addition to the Latino Sports family, Joe has a long history in baseball at various levels. He not only played from Little League until age 41 but also coached, managed and became involved in the administration of baseball, serving as President of Little League and Babe Ruth League organizations. In recent years, he served as an assistant to Major League scout Tom Giordano until his passing in 2019. As an employee of the Boston Braves, his father introduced him to Major League baseball at an early age and he continues to “live and breath” baseball.

Julian Guilarte is a videographer and journalist of Latino Sports. He joined the team in February of 2023. His major interest is baseball. Julian has been covering the New York Yankees and Somerset Patriots for several years. He graduated in May of 2017 from William Paterson University, (Wayne, New Jersey), completing a B.A. in Communications.

Jason Schott has been a sportswriter since 2009, with his first beat the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2009. He then moved on to cover college basketball and the Nets’ first four years in Brooklyn. He has covered such big events as the NBA Playoffs and 2015 All-Star Game, NCAA Tournaments, and international soccer. Jason’s main beat now is Major League Baseball, primarily covering the Mets and Yankees.

Lloyd Carroll has been writing about sports since 1983 for Good Times magazine, the Long Island leisure-time bi-weekly which has been in print since 1969, and the Queens Chronicle, Queens’ largest weekly newspaper since 1989. In addition, you can read his columns at nysportsday.com, and hear his weekly commentary (Wednesdays at 6:30PM) on Westchester radio station WVOX (1460 on your AM dial and at wvox.com).

He holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University, as well as an MBA degree from the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration. He is also a CPA.