By Kyle Coppola
Eustis High Softball Dedicate State Championship Win To Lulu Colas
The Eustis Softball team dedicated the FHSAA Class 4A State Championship to Lulu Colas, a softball icon in Lake County who tragically passed away earlier this year. Lulu may not have been at the State Championship game physically but she was there in spirit and well represented.
Lauren Louise Boyd Colas was a godly woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, coach, and friend to so many who knew her. Born in Leesburg, she was a 2001 graduate of Mount Dora Christian Academy.
(The memorial patch with the Lulu’s name that adorned the back of the Eustis baseball batting helmets this year.)
Lulu was an All-State player in Volleyball, basketball, and softball. She was a softball state champion and earned a scholarship to play basketball at Seminole State College in Lake Mary, Florida before transferring to UCF where she majored in social work.
(Lulu Colas loved giving back to the community and teaching the game she loved.)
At the time of her passing earlier this year, Lulu was a physical education teacher at Eustis Heights Elementary and coached a 12U travel softball team called “Florida Storm”. Many of the top softball players in our surrounding community played on her travel team.
Lulu also taught at Treadway Elementary in Leesburg. Talking with people in the community especially at the State Championship game, you could see just how much she meant to so many people.
(Eustis Adrianna Covino shows off the memorial patch on the back of the Eustis batting helmet.)
No matter who I talked to about Lulu, they all had positive things to say about her and what she meant to the community. Eustis honored Lulu with memorial stickers on the back of their helmets all year. They were proudly displayed on each batting helmet and you could tell Lulu was represented during the championship game night in the hearts and memory of so many.
(Lulu’s name Lauren Boyd sits on the top of the Mount Dora Christian Academy 1999 Softball State Championship Winning Trophy.)
I can tell you this, Lulu would have been proud of the way Eustis High and Montverde Academy played and won state championships. Both programs represented our county with class and are very deserving champions.
Although Lulu is no longer with us, her memory serves as a beacon of hope for these young women. She coached many of them, was a friend to so many, and she is survived by her family including her daughter Skylar Colas who is a blossoming pitcher at MDCA. She’s also survived by her husband of 14 years, Stive, and children Skylar, Jaylen, Kylee, and Lennox.
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.
