By Kyle Coppola
Umatilla High School Boys Basketball Team Win 8th Game In A Row
The Umatilla High School boys’ basketball team won their 8th game in a row the other night against Lake Weir. The Bulldogs now improve to 16-3 on the season and are 4-0 in Class 4A District 6.
“We didn’t play our best basketball of the season, but we went into Lake Weir and got the job done. Winning eight in a row is a great accomplishment but we are focused on what remains in front of us.” says Coach Patrick Todd.
(Umatilla High School head basketball coach Patrick Todd talks to his team. Coach Todd has over 500 wins in his coaching career and has brought Umatilla High School some of their greatest sustained success in school history.)
Umatilla High School plays in one of the most competitive districts in Central Florida “I believe Class 4A District 6 is one of the top classes and districts in the state of Florida. The competition is always fierce, and any team can win on any given night as Lake Weir showed us last evening.”
Umatilla has come together nicely this season and are enjoying record breaking numbers in the 2023/2024 season. “There is a book written about the 1991 and 1992 Duke Blue devils college basketball team that says Day 1 your success is in its infancy. By the end of the season, you grow and mature to adulthood, and we are reaching that point. There is a lot of left work left to do.” says coach Todd.
(Umatilla High School sophomore Herly Brutus is one of the best players in Class 4A. He has been dominant this season.)
Umatilla High School has been playing amazing this season. Herly Brutus is averaging 14 points per game while Jay Miller is averaging 12 points per game. Brutus is also averaging 8 rebounds. The entire team is having a profound impact. The Bulldogs are coming off a season in which they won 23 games. That number of wins has never been seen in the modern era of boys’ basketball at Umatilla High School.
(Herly Brutus goes in for a layup. He leads the team in points scored this season.)
With just four games remaining in the regular season the question will be how much noise the Bulldogs can make in the District Tournament this season. They will have to face teams like The Villages Charter School, Eustis and South Sumter among others who always present a challenge every year.
The Bulldogs first must get through the remaining four games which starts on the road with Belleview this Friday night at 7:30pm. The final two home games for Umatilla are against Osceola on January 29th at 7:30pm and Senior night is scheduled for January 30th against MDCA at 7:00pm. The final regular season contest takes place at South Lake on February 2nd at 7:00pm.
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.
