By Kyle Coppola
East Ridge High Football Win Spring Football Game Against Harmony 13-0
The East Ridge High School Knights have a lot to look forward to in 2024. The team looked good despite a rash of injuries as the Knights came away with a 13-0 victory. “We are young and we lost 32 seniors last season but we have a lot of young guys who played well during the spring game. This summer we will work hard with them,” says head coach Donnie Burchfield.
Coach Burchfield has completely rebuilt the East Ridge High football team from the ground up. “When I took the program over two years ago, this team had not won a game in nearly two years. When we started winning, the mindset of the players, families, and coaches changed. I was as good as retired a few years ago but when I saw East Ridge struggling I had to step in and help.”
Coach Burchfield got the job a few years ago and since then has implemented procedures, lifting sessions, and training routines that have helped the team go from winning zero games in 2 years to winning 9 games in the last two years.
“I couldn’t do it without a great staff. We have Sean Wright who came to us from Lake Minneola High this season who will be the new co-defensive coordinator. Jason Guido is in his 2nd year from Eustis and has been a big help. We have come a long way in a short time,” says Coach Burchfield.
As far as the team, they looked good offensively. The team ran the ball effectively. While the team is still looking for their quarterback, Winston Bourgeois looked impressive. Replacing Cole Rylski is no easy task as Rylski has graduated. In fact, 15 East Ridge High School players will continue playing in college, which is one of the highest numbers in school history.
“We are excited, as you know, behind the scenes football never stops. Our guys have been working hard in the weight room and we refined the schedule this year with Pasco, Mount Dora High, and Eustis at the start of the season. It’s going to be a fun year,” says Coach Burchfield.
East Ridge High continues to make improvements to their athletics facilities. Coach Burchfield has been posting on social media about new hand-painted signs and the sprucing up of the school’s athletic facilities. One thing is for sure, East Ridge has stability within the program. The past few years have been a joy to watch as the program has reignited itself as a winning team.
While the program has not had a winning season since 2019, They did remain at 500 last year with a 5-5 record which is basically a winning season considering where they were just a few years ago. We look forward to seeing how East Ridge develops this summer! The first game is officially less than 3 months away!
Photo Credit – East Ridge High School
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.
