June 7, 2024
Local Baseball Star Collin Priest Breaks Home Run Record at University of Michigan
By Kyle Coppola
Local Baseball Star Collin Priest Breaks Home Run Record at University of Michigan
Local Mount Dora Christian Academy graduate Collin Priest turned a lot of heads in the Big Ten this season. Priest entered his freshman year at Michigan as a well-known power hitter. He contributed in massive ways for the Michigan Wolverines this season and broke a record.
(Collin Priest became the first freshman in University of Michigan history to hit 11 home runs.)
Priest becomes the first player in team history to have 11 home runs in a season! Those are incredible numbers put up by a freshman who was one of the biggest power hitters to come through Lake County in many years.
Priest appeared in 56 games for Michigan and hit a .279 average. He had a .445 on-base percentage. He also had 11 doubles, scored 29 runs, and had 30 RBIs for his freshman year.
(Priest was dominant in high school. He had over 80 RBIs and 25 home runs in his high school career with MDCA.)
For those who might not remember Priest, he played at Mount Dora Christian Academy where he was a First Team All-State. He had a .383 average in high school with 25 home runs and 84 RBIs. Priest was a Three-time All-State and All-District Selection.
Collin has two brothers, Ethan and Jonathan. Ethan is currently a pitcher on the MDCA baseball roster. Priest is no stranger to athletics as his parents, Elisabeth and Marty Priest, played basketball at Cazenovia College.
(Priest was very impressive at the plate this season. He represented Lake County well at Michigan.)
This was an absolutely massive year for Collin Priest. The power he is able to get behind the ball is incredible.
As he enters his sophomore year in 2025, we can only expect even bigger things from Priest. You can watch him play this summer in Leesburg as he is currently on the Leesburg Lightning Baseball team.
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.
