Author Liz Moore and husband Mac Casey cofounded Skilladelphia to make Philly sports more inclusive for girls and nonbinary athletes
Skilladelphia wants young athletes to have fun — and feel safe while doing it. Here’s how they’re doing it.
North Wales native Mac Casey stood in front of dozens of young athletes for one of Skilladelphia’s Sunday basketball clinics, where he coaches kids from 6-14 years old.
Sitting on the baseline at the Old Pine Community Center in Society Hill, they patiently listened to Casey as he taught the basics of shooting form through the acronym B.E.E.F. — base, eyes, elbow, follow through. As coaches demonstrated the proper form, author Liz Moore, Casey’s wife and a cofounder of Skilladelphia, watched from the sideline.
“Our intention is to keep girls in the sport longer, to provide accessible sports education that doesn’t prioritize competition but instead prioritizes fun and positivity,” Moore said. “Another big part of our mission is providing flexible and remunerative work for fair compensation for women coaches.”
Moore, the author of best-selling books The God of the Woods and Philly-set Long Bright River, and her husband founded Skilladelphia in 2023.
Within no time, it ballooned and we realized there might be something more.
The nonprofit offers low- or no-cost training to girls and nonbinary people at all levels. Casey and Moore started Skilladelphia after their daughter, Annie, played her first rec season with the Philadelphia Dragons in 2022.
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When they realized it was difficult to find a place for Annie, who’s now 9, and her friends to shoot on 8-foot-hoops in the offseason, they decided to take action. They started out small by donating an adjustable hoop to the Old Pine Community Center to host local shootarounds.
“We realized there was a bit of a gap in clinics and instructional programs available to younger girls,” Casey said. “The infrastructure just wasn’t there to support it. So we donated an adjustable basketball hoop to our local community center and that was able to bring in a group of kids that really can’t go practice at a park because the court is too high.
“When we did that, we started with about eight kids. Within no time, it ballooned, and we realized there might be something more.”
In 2025, there were 656 participants , more than double the previous year’s total of 307.
Skilladelphia offers a number of basketball programs, including Sunday clinics ($160 per player for either five or eight sessions), after-school training on Tuesdays and Thursdays ($40 per session), and pickup games on Wednesday nights ($15 per session). They’ve also branched into other sports, including lacrosse, with winter clinics on Mondays ($80 per player for four sessions) and aftercare on Wednesdays ($40 per session).
“I think sports programming can be a really wonderful thing for girls,” Moore said. “There’s countless studies that show really positive outcomes professionally and mentally for girls in sport. So we hope to provide a third space for them in the city where they can gain confidence, gain resilience, fall in love with moving their bodies, and fall in love with what their bodies can do in a low-pressure and noncompetitive environment. Those are all the reasons that we founded Skilladelphia.”
We don’t have a lot of representation, so it means a lot that I’m able to step into that role and be part of a lot of these girls lives.
Each program is led by former and current college athletes — including Casey, who played one season of basketball at Ursinus, and former West Chester women’s basketball player Valerie McGriff, better known to the kids as Coach Val.
The 24-year-old Lansdale native has been coaching with the organization for two years after serving as a day camp counselor at Old Pine Community Center.
“[Working with Skilladelphia] means a lot to me,” McGriff said. “Not only does it allow me to give back to the youth basketball community, but specifically for girls. We don’t have a lot of representation, so it means a lot that I’m able to step into that role and be part of a lot of these girls lives.”
Skilladelphia also partners with the women’s basketball and lacrosse teams from the Penn and Temple and compensates current players to coach — including Penn basketball players Brooke Suttle and Mataya Gayle. Throughout the year, Skilladelphia provides free tickets to games and will be hosting outdoor lacrosse clinics at Penn starting in May.
“They’re amazing partners,” Casey said. “Both basketball programs have helped us tremendously. Their players come and coach some of our clinics. They model amazing behavior. They are what it means to be a student-athlete, and they’re really excellent with the kids.”
As women’s sports in Philadelphia continue to grow — bolstered further last summer by the announcement of a future WNBA team, which the program was part of — so does Skilladelphia.
Skilladelphia also will expand into other neighborhoods, with plans to run programming out of Independence Charter School. To celebrate its success over the years, it is hosting a spring celebration April 23 at Old Pine Community Center.
Over the next year, the cofounders plan to offer over 175 clinics — adding an additional week of summer camp programming and providing aftercare for the entire school year.
“We have three tenets: Have fun, learn something, and make a friend,” Casey said. “We’re trying to foster a really good environment for young girls to grow and gain confidence and be athletic or learn to be athletes. And it doesn’t necessarily mean they have to go on to be basketball players. But we want them to find joy in sport, find community themselves, and get to know each other.
“This is a community center. We’re a community-based organization. This is a safe space for them to learn and grow and have fun.”
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