By Kyle Coppola
Lake Minneola High Junior Volleyball Player Turning Heads
Camila Antonsanti-Soto
When Camila Antonsanti-Soto brings more than talent when she steps onto the volleyball court, she carries the legacy of a family that bet everything on her potential.
A junior at Lake Minneola High School, Camila has emerged as one of Central Florida’s brightest high school volleyball stars on a journey that began more than a thousand miles away in Puerto Rico, where she began playing volleyball at 8 years old.
She quickly outgrew the local circuit, and after winning an AAU National Championship with her Puerto Rican 10U team in 2019, she and her family made a bold decision.
“My parents saw the potential in me and my brother Fabian early on,” Camila says. “They knew if we were going to chase our dreams, we needed to be where the opportunities were.”
So, in 2021, Eric Antonsanti and Soelimir Soto — both former professional basketball players in Puerto Rico — moved their family to Clermont, a place that offered their children the best shot at athletic and academic success.
It didn’t take long for Camila to prove that mom and dad made the right decision.
Soon after settling in, Camila helped East Ridge Middle School win back-to-back District Championships, and her club USAV Girls Jr. Nationals qualified for the 13U open division.
Now entering her junior season, Camila is coming off a breakout year at Lake Minneola in which she led her team to a District Championship with 137 kill shots, 22 service aces, and 190 assists.
“Winning the district title last year was my favorite memory so far,” she says. “It showed me how far we’ve come as a team and how far I’ve come since that first serve in Puerto Rico.”
Camila insists that her success is rooted in the lessons passed down by her parents and coaches.
“My parents have always emphasized fundamentals, hard work, and never being afraid to make mistakes,” she says. “Mistakes don’t define you. You learn, you grow and you get better.”
That same drive shows up in the classroom. Camila maintains a 4.6 GPA and has already expressed interest in pursuing architectural engineering at the university level.
With two years left in high school, Camila isn’t slowing down. She hopes to repeat as district champs this fall and to continue refining her skills ahead of a college volleyball career.
“I love Clermont. I love my team. And I’m so grateful to my parents for believing in me enough to come to Florida so we can live out our dreams,” she says. “I just want to make the most of every opportunity.”
Photos: Provided by Howie McCormick
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.
