By Kyle Coppola
Wildwood Girls Basketball Having A Terrific Season
The Wildwood Lady Wildcats are having another great season led by a group of girls who have been dominating the competition. #11 Trinidy Harris is one of those leaders on the Wildwood Middle High School team who is having a strong impact.
Harris is averaging around 17.4 points per game. The junior has been a team leader along with senior #12 Essiance Jasper who is averaging 10.3 points per game. These ladies have produced a ton of great moments so far this season. Harris is approaching 200 points scored on the year.
(#14 Senior Essiance Jasper goes in for a layup. She is averaging 10 points per game. She also leads the team in rebounds with nearly 7 per game on average.)
Harris gets plenty of help from #1 Zoey Brown who leads the team in assists. She currently has over 51 assists on the season. Brown also leads the team in blocks with 48 total blocks on the year. Essiance Jasper leads the team in total rebounds with 74 and Brown is second on the team with 52 of them.
Head coach Vincent Brown has the lady Wildcats looking strong as the tail end of the regular season which will give Wildwood a challenge. Games include Forest, Trinity Catholic and Buchholz among others. Other Wildwood contributors have been #3 Adejah Corbin who is 6″6 and only a sophomore. She has 47 rebounds and averages 6 points per game. Sophomore #2 Zaria Weaver and #10 Narjhani Harris are two younger players who have shown a ton of promise. We look forward to seeing them develop the next few seasons.
(It has been difficult for teams to defend against #11 Junior Trinidy Harris. This has been a common sight this year with Harris going in for a layup.)
Last season saw the Lady Wildcats make it to the State Championship game but lose in a heartbreaker 42-38 against Hawthorne. Most of the major contributors for this year’s Wildwood team were on last year’s team. One thing we have noticed about this team is that they are hungry to get back to the FHSAA Playoffs. This team has the makings of a Wildcat team that could go on a run in the playoffs. If the past two years are any indication, Class 1A better be on the lookout.
The Wildwood team that we are seeing this year is in many ways more dynamic and experienced than last years squad. While the team is still making in season adjustments, the team has settled in nicely. Last year’s Lady Wildcat team acted as a collective unit but this year they have grown even closer together.
(Try getting through this defense! The Wildwood Wildcats have had one of the most dominant defensive fronts this season.)
This team looks like it could do some damage in the playoffs this season. This is the type of team that can make a run and has done so multiple times. They have been to the State Championship the last two years. The last time they won the State Championship was the historic back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018. Wildwood always has one of the most successful girls basketball programs in our county.
The 2017 and 18 teams were something very special. Wildwood is right on the cusp of bringing home another Championship. They were only four points from claiming a state championship last season! We look forward to continuing to watch their progress as the season unfolds.
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.
