By Kyle Coppola
Montverde Academy Win FHSAA Class 3A State Softball Championship
The Montverde Academy Lady Eagles have won the FHSAA Class 3A State Softball Championship after an extra innings 2-1 win against Calvary Christian in Clermont last evening. This marks the 4th State Championship for Montverde Academy this season as this team joins Girls Soccer along with Boys & Girls Track & Field.
With the game tied 1-1 in the 8th inning, Montverde was able to load the bases. That is when Colby Reish would come up to bat. Reish had Ari Jimenez on third base. With two outs and the bases loaded, Reish hit a ball to right field and Calvary Christian could not catch the ball. Ari Jimenez took a short jog to home plate and that is all she wrote!
Montverde Academy are the FHSAA Class 3A State Champions. This was a well played game by both sides but ultimately only one team could come away with the victory. The Eagles had 6 hits in the contest. Taboas was 3 for 4 on the night with a triple. Navaeh Williams pithed an amazing game. She had nine strikeouts and she ends the season with 152 on the year. Montverde Academy says that’s a new strikeout record for the school.
Montverde Academy ends the season with a 28-4 record. This is also the first State Championship in program history. A big congratulations to the coaching staff, players, parents and support from the Montverde community who showed up and were vocal all night.
Photo Credit – Montverde Academy Sports
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.
