August 27, 2025
National Boys High School Basketball Showcase in The Villages a Huge Success
By Kyle Coppola
National Boys High School Basketball Showcase in The Villages a Huge Success
This past weekend in Sumter County, some of the best talent in the country showed up for the National Boys High School Basketball Showcase. In what proved to be a resounding success, the showcase brought out over 120 elite athletes from across the country for a high-energy, entirely free event that blended top-tier competition with meaningful community impact.
Coached by six college-level coaches and staff from The Villages High School, the showcase not only delivered high-level instruction and exposure but also led to four players receiving college basketball offers. There were also six additional campus visits scheduled for the fall. Organized by Project Legacy, the event raised $10,000 for three children’s charities.
(Coach John Strong stands with members of Riptide Society who were donated $4,000 from proceeds from the event.)
The event was sponsored by Ballogy, Agua+ Alkaline Water, and The Legal Legacy Team. These partners played a vital role in bringing the vision of this showcase to life. They ensured every detail reflected professionalism, purpose, and opportunity.
(Dell Johnson attended the event and helped out.)
Attending the event was Dell Johnson, who is the trainer and owner of EAT, which stands for Equal Access to Training. He supplied the basketball training to student athletes in the Saginaw and surrounding areas. He attended the camp and led the dynamic stretching along with coaching the combine with local college coaches.
(By the end of the showcase, multiple players ended up with scholarship offers to continue their athletic and playing careers.)
Villages assistant coach John Strong also worked very hard putting this event together. John is committed to helping these young kids further their athletic careers. We talked to John just over a month ago and he was so excited about the quality of this showcase and what can be done in the future as this was the first event put on like this in Sumter County.
Congratulations to all the players who received college offers.
Photo Credit – John Strong
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.
