By Kyle Coppola
Eustis High Appoints New Co-Athletic Directors
It has been an exciting month at Eustis High School. After former athletic director Thomas Kupec stepped down, Eustis High School appointed new co-athletic directors who will lead the school going forward.
Michelle Long and Matt Burgess have been named as the school’s new athletic directors and they have hit the ground running. Michelle Long brings over 24 years of experience in the world of education. Long has been an ESE Special Education teacher for her nearly two-and-a-half-decade career as an educator. She currently works at the Eustis Curtright Campus.
Michelle Long is also involved with the Lake County Unified Special Olympics and is a coach co-coordinator with Michelle Metheny of Tavares High. Long was very excited to begin this chapter of her educational career “I am so excited to work with Matt. I worked as a cross-country coach with the high school this year and this is my 7th year at Eustis. I am looking forward to representing Eustis High as their co-athletic director and am excited about the possibilities that exist for our program.”
Long is joined by former Eustis head baseball coach Matt Burgess. He is a former graduate of Eustis High School in 2007. Burgess has been doing a great job coaching baseball and teaching math at the school in recent years. Burgess has been replaced by coach Tony Thomas who brings 14 years of professional baseball experience to the team and is a FSU hall of fame athlete. Thomas was an assistant coach under Burgess the last few years.
Burgess says “I have never been an athletic director before but there are so many people around the community who have been lending me a hand. I just came on board so Michelle and I are still getting our feet wet but I can tell you, this school means so much to me. I am looking forward to continuing the long legacy of athletics at Eustis High.”
Burgess has transitioned to a roll as a Physical Education teacher. As much as we will miss Burgess as the coach of the baseball team, we know that Tony Thomas will do incredible things for that squad.
We do not have an update as to why Thomas Kupec left but we have reached out to Principal Clark and Assistant Principal Zimmerman for comment. When we hear from them, we will be sure to update as we know more information.
As for now we wish Michelle Long and Matthew Burgess the best of luck at their new positions.
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.
