By Kyle Coppola
Leesburg High Boys Basketball Earns #2 Seed In State Tournament
The Leesburg High School boys basketball team has earned the #2 seed in the FHSAA State Basketball tournament. The team secured the #2 seed after winning their district championship against Vanguard.
Leesburg High is in a really good section of the state bracket that includes Lecanto, Jesuit, and Vanguard. Leesburg beat both Lecanto and Vanguard in their respective district tournaments. The Yellow Jackets will take on a familiar Class 5A District 5 opponent in Lecanto.
(Wilton Jean-Pierre is a 6″4 senior forward for Leesburg.)
Although Lecanto came in third place in the district tournament, they earned the #7 seed. Lecanto lost to Vanguard 53-42 in the district semi-final. Vanguard would face Leesburg, who would win 73-62 and earn the #2 spot in the region.
(Tyler Hutto goes up for a dunk during a recent game against Eustis.)
Leesburg has looked incredible this season, and there is reason to think there is a path to the State Final Four this season. Leesburg will need to win a few games, including a huge one against either Vanguard or Jesuit, to earn the right to play in a regional final that would likely be against Blake from Tampa.
(The Leesburg High School gym is going to be a loud place on Thursday evening when Lecanto comes to town.)
The Yellow Jackets come in with Angelo Moton and Jermarien Williams playing the best basketball of the season for the Yellow Jackets. Coach Sean Campbell has been pulling double duty with the girls and boys teams this season as their head coach. At times the coaching staff has been spread thin, but they have made it work all year long.
(Angelo Moton #3 for Leesburg leads the team in points this season.)
Leesburg has a 90% chance of winning against Lecanto on Thursday, but those chances go down to around 60% when they play Jesuit or Vanguard. Those two teams pose many challenges that Leesburg will have to contend with. Lecanto will come out fired up, so we are not writing them off by any means, but it’s a serious uphill battle for Lecanto to try and win this game.
Lecanto is heading into a hostile environment on Thursday night. Leesburg High will be loud and looking to punch their ticket to the Regional Semi-Finals. It should be a fun night if you can make it out! The game is at 7 pm.
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.
