By Kyle Coppola
Remembering Lake County Sheriff Chris Daniels Sr. 18 Years Later
Today we remember Lake County Sheriff’s Officer Christopher Daniels Sr. who was killed in an accident 18 years ago while representing the Lake County Sheriff’s Office in the fifth annual Battle of the Badges charity event.
Sheriff Daniels and several other sheriffs from around the state were competing in a school bus race at the New Smyrna Speedway. The event was being held to raise money for the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch. The bus that Sheriff Daniels was driving was struck by another bus driven by Seminole County, Florda Sheriff Don Eslinger. Upon impact, he was ejected from the bus he was driving and was subsequently struck by another bus. Tragically he was pronounced dead at the age of 47.
Sheriff Daniels had served in law enforcement for 20 years. He is survived by his wife and four children. After Daniel’s death Gary Borders was appointed as Lake County’s new sheriff by then Governor Jeb Bush.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
