By Kyle Coppola
South Lake Boys Soccer Aims to Build on Historic Regional Run
South Lake High boys soccer team from Groveland is entering the new season coming off the best year in school history. Earlier this year, the program, led by head coach Josh Castleman, finished 12-6-4. That included a deep postseason run. The Eagles captured the first boys soccer district title in school history before advancing through the playoffs all the way to the Regional finals, which was also a first in school history.
One of the defining moments last season came on the road against Niceville High. Against Niceville, ranked No. 1 in Class 6A, South Lake trailed 3-0 in the second half. The Eagles fought back to force penalty kicks, eventually winning in the shootout to advance. The Eagles followed that by defeating Buchholz on the road before falling 1-0 to Mandarin in the regional final, also on the road.
Coach Castleman has the program in solid position after back-to-back winning seasons. This year the focus is on returning to the playoffs with a strong core of returners and several promising newcomers.
“We have a lot of returners this year and a few strong newcomers, so we have high hopes,” Castleman says.
To reinforce the team’s approach, Castleman distributed wristbands to every player that read “Win the 1v1.”
“I talked about how in a game (and in their lives) there are going to be a lot of things out of their control,” he says. “But in that 1v1 moment, they can control the outcome. Just win most of those 1v1 situations and great things will happen.”
This season two very exciting players return, including junior Renzo Candioto, one of the area’s top strikers, who led the Eagles with 26 goals last season. Also returning is senior forward David Bustamante, who had 19 goals and led the team with 11 assists.
South Lake will also return some very talented defenders and midfielders such as senior Joseph Lightfoot, who led the Eagles with 177 steals last year, as well as sophomore defender and midfielder Matthew Connelly, who contributed eight goals and had more than 130 steals last season.
Castleman is excited about having the group back together.
“It’s so good to have these guys all back together,” he says. “I’ve missed them. I’m looking forward to seeing them have a successful season that they can be proud of.”
On the coaching staff, David Cortes returns for his third season and will lead a talented junior varsity team. Angelo Coniglio joins as the new varsity assistant coach.
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.
