By Kyle Coppola
Former Villages Basketball Star Sam Walters Commits To Michigan
Sam Walters, who graduated in 2023 from The Villages Charter School and became the first Villages basketball player to reach the Final Four with Alabama, entered the transfer portal. His destination has landed him at The University of Michigan, where he will compete with the Michigan Wolverines for the 2024/2025 season.
Walters was a standout player for The Villages Charter School. He helped The Villages to their first-ever State Championship appearance in 2022. Walters was a stellar player during his freshman year with Alabama; he played behind some amazing talent as well and would ultimately wind up playing in Arizona in the Final Four.
(Sam Walters sits alongside his mom Heidi Walters who has been Sam’s biggest fan. “He’s so excited to be at Michigan” said Heidi.)
While Alabama would lose their Final Four matchup, Walters got valuable experience and is looking to forward his career. His family was with him as he made his decision. The transition to Michigan will be viewed as a positive move for Walters.
He continues to develop well as a college athlete. Michigan is coming off a tough year where they finished 8-14, which is a far cry from the teams in the late 2010s which saw Michigan make the NCAA Sweet Sixteen a few times including being the NCAA Division 1 Runner-Up in 2018.
(Sam Walters will go from the SEC’s Alabama to the Michigan in the Big Ten Conference next season.)
Just a few years ago, Michigan was in the NCAA Elite Eight. Michigan is looking to regain the momentum that it had and there is certainly hope that they will. Walters will have a new coach in 2024 as Michigan decided that they were parting ways with Juwan Howard after five years of coaching. Michigan hired Dusty May, who has been building Florida Atlantic into a consistent winner in the past few years.
Congratulations to Sam Walters, his family, friends, and coaches on another big step in his career!
Photos Provided By – Heidi Jones Walters
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.
