June 23, 2025
Groveland’s Vanessa Waite Crowned New Balance Outdoor Nationals Champion
By Kyle Coppola
Groveland’s Vanessa Waite Crowned New Balance Outdoor Nationals Champion
Vanessa Waite, a rising freshman phenom from Groveland, is now among the fastest young sprinters in the United States. Vanessa won the 200-meter dash at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals and doing so in record-breaking fashion.
Vanessa blazed across the finish line in 23.28 seconds, shattering the meet record and claiming the New Balance national title. The time stands as the fastest ever recorded at the event by a freshman and places her second overall in the U.S. this season among ninth-grade athletes.
(Vanessa holds the record breaking banner at the New Balance Nationals which were held at Penn. Photo Credit – Ran Waite.)
Born and raised in Groveland, Florida, Vanessa has quickly become a standout on the national stage. Her historic run not only earned her a place in the record books but confirmed her potential as one of the top young talents in American track and field.
“I feel really good after the race and I didn’t PR but I felt really good. When I first woke up my mind wasn’t in a good place but I trusted in God and I was ok.” she said in a Flo Sports interview after her race.
(Vanessa stands with these amazing women who she ran against. These young ladies continue to set the tone for women’s youth sports. Photo Credit – Ran Waite.)
Vanessa’s 200-meter title adds to her growing list of accomplishments and signals a bright future ahead. She was also among the top middle school athletes the past few years at the New Balance Nationals and there’s a good chance we will see her in Oregon in a few years to try and qualify for the 2028 LA Olympic Team.
Vanessa started running track at age 6, inspired by her older sister Andria, a 400-meter competitor at Florida Gulf Coast University, and Olivia, a junior at Lake Minneola who competes in javelin and shot put. Since the beginning, her father, Randolph Waite, has coached her through years of training and competition with the AAU, a program that offers travel track and field opportunities for young athletes of all skill levels.
(Vanessa Waite is a name you will be hearing a lot more of in the near future.)
“I have been her coach since she was 6,” Randolph says. “Many think the journey was easy, but she was at the bottom when she first started. She is just now getting the accolades from the process. So many people think she just got there overnight but they don’t see the hard work, countless hours and what she has had to go through.”
Beyond athletics, Vanessa excels academically, maintaining a weighted 4.0 GPA while dual-enrolled at Lake-Sumter State College and taking AP classes. She’s also involved with the Health Science Collegiate Academy.
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.
