By Kyle Coppola
Groveland’s Vanessa Waite Nominated for Youth Athlete of the Year
Lake Minneola High School student Vanessa Waite of Groveland, has been nominated for Youth Athlete of the Year. If she wins, Vanessa would be featured in a 3BRAND ad in Sports Illustrated and win up to $25,000.
Vanessa is one of the fastest runners in the country in the 200-meter race. She started running track at the age of six, inspired by her older sister Andria, a 400-meter competitor at Florida Gulf Coast university, and Olivia, her sister who will be a senior at Lake Minneola High. 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 broke the New Balance World Record for the fastest time for a freshman in history in the 200-meter race with a 23.28.)
“I have been her coached since she was six,” says Randolph. “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, and countless hours and what she has had to go through to get here.”
Beyond athletics, Vanessa excels academically with a 4.0 GPA. She is dual-enrolled at Lake-Sumter State College and is taking AP classes. She is also involved with the Health Science Collegiate Academy.
(Vanessa is one of the fastest freshman in all of the USA. She comes into her sophomore season looking as good as she ever has.)
“The best thing I like about competing in track and field, is having an opportunity to run against new athletes, I have also learned how to embrace the process, and use the talent that God gave me,” says Vanessa. “I am truly inspired by my dad who has helped me be a God fearing young lady with the help of my mother who I love dearly! As a student athlete, there are moments when you have to face adversity, and this year was one of them. I faced an injury early in the season and came back and I was able to still compete at an elite level and break the New Balance National freshman record in the 200m dash, running a 23.28 and also becoming a First Team All National track & field athlete as a freshman.”
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.
