By Kyle Coppola
Student Athlete of the Week: Eustis High Basketball Jayveon Dale
Our student athlete of the week is Eustis High School basketball senior Jayveon Dale. Jayveon has been a huge asset to the Panthers team this year and has been the past few seasons. This year Dale is averaging 16.4 points per game which leads the team. He has helped Eustis to the best start of a season in nearly five seasons. The Panthers currently sit at 12-4 on the year having just come off a tough loss against cross town rival Leesburg 61-45. However, they did beat Leesburg late last year 50-46 with one more meeting scheduled on January, 26th.
(Jayveon Dale #3 takes a shot in a game against Leesburg. Dale leads Eustis in points per game along with junior Anthony Hines.)
During his time on the varsity squad, Dale has been about consistency. Be it shooting from the field, or playing defense there is a reason why Jayveon is one of the leaders of the Eustis team. He currently leads Eustis in points scored. He and junior#1 Anthony Hines have really been the two offensive standouts so far this season. Hines also is averaging 16 points per game.
We also must give it up to junior #12 Timothy Key who has helped the Eustis program mightily this season. He has 11 points per game. Jayveon Dale also leads the team in steals by a large margin. He has been able to turn many of those steals into points on the other end of the floor. Eustis will have a few games against some Lake County opponents with South Lake tonight and Lake Minneola on Thursday.
(Jayveon Dale “Eustis #3” defends against Angelo Moton “Leesburg #3”. Dale leads the Panthers in steals this season.)
Eustis will want to get things fine-tuned down the final stretch of the season. With the District tournament looming large on the horizon, they will need to give it their all as they face teams like The Villages and Umatilla High who are both having great seasons. South Sumter is also having a decent year quietly lurking with an 8-4 record.
Congratulations to Jayveon Dale and we look forward to seeing more out of this young man as the seasons moves along.
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.
