February 5, 2024
Four Finalists for Lake & Sumter County Boys Basketball Coach of the Year Announced
By Kyle Coppola
Four Finalists for Lake & Sumter County Boys Basketball Coach of the Year Announced
Congratulations to our four finalists for the Lake & Sumter County boys basketball coach of the year. The four finalists are Wesley Green from Eustis High School, Patrick Todd from Umatilla High School, and Sean Campbell from Leesburg High School, and Colt McDowell from The Villages.
Sean Campbell (Leesburg High School)
(Leesburg High School head basketball coach Sean Campbell who coaches both the girls and boys varsity teams.)
Sean Campbell has impressed us all this season with his work ethic. Taking on both the boys and girls varsity teams as a head coach has not been easy. Both boys and girls teams are ranked #1 in their respective district tournaments. The girls’ team, in particular, has gone from winning just 1 game a season ago to winning over 20 games in 2023/2024. A remarkable turnaround. Coach Campbell is also about to win his 200th game in his career.
Wesley Green (Eustis High School)
(Eustis High School head coach Wesley Green.)
Wesley Green has been having one of the best seasons of his head coaching career at Eustis High School. Coach Green took Eustis to a record of 20-4 in the regular season. He has brought Eustis Basketball to prominence this season as the Panthers rank #1 in the district tournament for the first time in many years.
Colt McDowell (The Villages Charter)
(The Villages Charter School head coach Colt McDowell representing Sumter County.)
Coach McDowell scheduled one of the most difficult schedules in program history for The Villages Charter School. With a record of 14-11, don’t let that fool you. The Buffalo have competed against some amazing competition this season that includes The Rock National, Westminster Academy, Bell Creek, Oak Ridge, and Olympia. Many of those teams are favorites to head to states this season. Last year, Coach McDowell led The Villages to their first-ever State Championship appearance.
Patrick Todd (Umatilla High School)
(Head coach of Umatilla High School Patrick Todd. It has been inspiring what coach Todd has done with The Umatilla High School athletics programs the past few years.)
Patrick Todd is doing incredible things with Umatilla High school. Once thought of as a punching bag for Lake County, Umatilla is now considered one of the power teams in Class 4A. The past two seasons, Umatilla has averaged over 18 wins. That alone is something to celebrate considering where this team has been. Coach Todd has over 500 wins in his career. He is not only helping the basketball team but the school get their athletics back on track. Coach Todd has proven why he has had such longevity in athletics and continues to impress us year after year.
The winner will be announced in a few weeks.
This form is currently closed for submissions.
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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.
Hey Kyle, the one for the guys won’t let us vote like we did for the one for girls
Hey Michael, I launched that one before I did the girls one. I got such good response on the boys and only did it as an experiment that I did not build anything for it as far as voting goes on the website. I will next time. The post sort of exploded and I did not realize what a need in the community there is for it. So for the boys you can just leave a comment on either Facebook or Instagram or on here and I will tally up all the votes from people in about a week from now. Thank you for your support!