January 8, 2024
Mount Dora High Wrestler Russell Fickett Takes 1st Place at Ron Peter’s Tournament of Champions
By Kyle Coppola
Mount Dora High Wrestler Russell Fickett Takes 1st Place at Ron Peter’s Tournament of Champions
Russell Fickett brought home the first-place medal after a dominating performance at the 34th annual Ron Peter’s Tournament of Champions in Lake Mary this weekend. Mount Dora High would wind up having 5 placers during the tournament with Rusell Fickett bringing home a gold first place medal.
(Cannon Sommer second from the right stands on podium #2. Sommer has been a ton of fun to watch this season.)
Fickett would place 1st in the 215lb category followed by Cannon Sommer who wound up placing with the silver medal in the 106lb weight class. Anthony Dawson had a very respectable 4th place finish in the 175lb weight class while Colton Fickett who is Russell Fickett’s younger brother took home 5th place in the 157lb weight class. Rounding out the medal placers was Brayden Brown who finished 6th in the 113lb weight class.
(Anthony Dawson stands on podium #4.)
Overall, it has been a terrific year for Mount Dora wrestling so far. The Canes are riding high after winning their first ever Dual Championship District meet against The Villages. They now get set for the FHSAA Regional Duals at Wekiva High School on January, 11th at 6pm.
Head coach David Kemmy has really been getting the most out of his boys this season. The Canes rewarded coach David Kemmy just last week as Kemmy wrapped up the 400th win of his career as a head coach.
We wish the Canes the best of luck as they compete with cross town rivals The Villages at Wekiva High School in the FHSAA regionals on Thursday evening.
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.
