By Kyle Coppola
Tony Thomas Becomes Eustis High New Head Baseball Coach
Tony Thomas has been announced as Eustis High School’s new head baseball coach. Thomas replaces Matt Burgess who had been the Eustis Baseball head coach. Effective immediately Eustis High has promoted Michelle Long and Matt Burgess to Co- Athletic Directors.
Tony Thomas has an incredible history. Thomas played at FSU from 2005-2007 and was an All-American in 2007. Thomas then went on to play 14 years of professional baseball. Thomas was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 3rd round of the 2007 MLB June Amateur Draft.
(Matt Burgess and Michelle Long have taken over as Co-Athletic Directors at Eustis High School.)
Thomas played for a variety of MiLB teams and independent teams. He most recently played with Southern Maryland but has played with the Pawtucket Red Sox now the Woo Sox, Portland, Birmingham among other teams.
Thomas has since retired from professional baseball and has been giving back to the Lake County community. Thomas owns Eustis Baseball Academy and has been working with youth baseball players in the area.
Thomas certainly will be a great replacement for Matthew Burgess. The Eustis Baseball program has been superb the past few years. Thomas will look to keep that trend going as the 2024 season approaches.
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.
