By Kyle Coppola
Mount Dora High Cadet Peyton Scott Selected for Cadet of the Year
Very exciting news out of Mount Dora High School as one of our very own has been named as the Air Force/Space Force JROTC Region 2 Cadet of the Year! Cadet Peyton Scott is the first Lake County cadet to receive this honor.
Cadet Peyton Scott competed against cadets from Florida, Alabama, Missouri, and Utah (the regions are not geographical but are cadet-based). Cadet Scott will now move on to the next level of the competition where he will compete against 3 other cadet regional winners to determine who will be the JROTC Cadet of the Year for all of Air Force ROTC!
Cadet Scott has a Weighted GPA of 4.92. He has completed 268 Community Service Hours this academic year. He is the JROTC Corps Commander. He led his Unit to the Distinguished Unit Award. He also Led his Unit to the Silver Star Community Service with Excellence Award (Top 5% in the World in service.)
Cadet Scott also led his unit to a 72 community service hours per cadet average and over 8,000 hours total this academic year. Cadet Scott is a Kitty Hawk Air Society Commander, Former Drill Team & Raider Team Commander, Skills USA Secretary, and National Honor Society Member.
“This honor is a true testament to Cadet Scott’s leadership, academic excellence, and commitment to our school and community, and also marks the first in the program’s 29-year history a cadet from Mount Dora AFJROTC has been selected for this honor. The award also reflects the amazing level of support the JROTC program enjoys from Mount Dora High School, the community of Mount Dora, and the Lake County School District,” says Retired USAF, Major Andrew Scott.
Selection criteria emphasized cadet leadership as well as involvement within the unit, school, and community. Additionally, cadets’ academic performance and citizenship character traits were also evaluated (i.e., dependability, followership, communication skills, motivation, problem-solving skills, etc.). Cadet Scott competed against 830 other AF/SF JROTC units and was selected ahead of over 30,000 cadets from the Continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, Japan, and Germany.
Cadet Scott also led the Principal’s top fundraiser this year called the Art Festival Parking Operation. Cadet Scott coordinated 100 volunteers and raised over $8,000 for Mount Dora High School.
Out of all the years that AFJROTC has been around at Mount Dora High and Lake County, it is a true honor that this is the first time in Lake County history that a JROTC cadet has been selected for Cadet of the Year. It warms my heart personally knowing that strong young leaders like Cadet Scott will lead our nation in the coming years.
We send a big congratulations to Cadet Scott, his family, friends, teachers, and mentors. This young man has an exciting future in store for him.
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.
