By Kyle Coppola
Lake-Sumter State College Adding Men’s and Woman’s Golf in 2024
CLERMONT, Fla. – Lake-Sumter State College is proud to announce the addition of men’s and women’s golf teams for the upcoming 2024-25 season, becoming the seventh sport sponsored by the College.
The teams will be located on the South Lake Campus in Clermont and will utilize local courses for practice and competition. Both teams will play in the fall and spring, with championship tournaments during the spring season.
“I am thrilled to be adding men’s and women’s golf at Lake-Sumter State College,” said Padraic McMeel, Executive Director of Athletics. “Golf is incredibly popular across Florida and we are excited to provide student-athletes an opportunity to continue competing at the collegiate level while earning a high-quality degree from LSSC. I look forward to getting these programs started this fall and hopefully see them competing for championships in the very near future.”
According to the National Golf Foundation, the fastest growing age group playing golf is juniors, who have seen a 40 percent increase since 2019. This under 18 age group includes more than one-third girls, creating strong talent pipelines for the College’s men’s and women’s teams.
LSSC joins both Florida Gateway College and Palm Beach State College in adding golf programs for the upcoming season. LSSC is the sixth Florida College System institution in NJCAA Region 8 to offer golf.
Lakehawk Athletics is committed to developing well-rounded student-athletes that excel both on and off the field,” says McMeel. “Our coaches and staff foster a culture of excellence in the pursuit of their sport, academics, career planning, and community service.”
A search is underway for a Golf Head Coach. Interested individuals should visit www.lssc.edu/jobs and choose Part-Time Openings or contact workwithus@lssc.edu for more information.
Visit www.lakehawksports.com to stay up-to-date on all Lakehawk Athletics activities and results.
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.
