February 26, 2025
Wildwood Girls Basketball Dominates Blountstown 67-32, Advance to FHSAA State Championship
By Kyle Coppola
Wildwood Girls Basketball Dominates Blountstown 67-32, Advance to FHSAA State Championship
LAKELAND, Fla. — The Wildwood Middle High School girls basketball team is one step closer to redemption. The Lady Wildcats stormed past Blountstown 67-32 in the FHSAA Class Rural State Semifinals at the RP Funding Center on Wednesday, punching their ticket to the championship game.
Wildwood (24-0) remains unbeaten this season, extending its winning streak to 24 games since last season’s heartbreaking semifinal loss to Hawthorne. Now, with a shot at the state title, the Lady Wildcats will face the winner of Holmes County and Hilliard on Friday at 5 p.m.
(Coach Vincent Brown Sr. has Wildwood in the position to not only have an undefeated season but win the State Championship. Photo Credit – Joe Ott.)
Senior standout Trinidy Harris led the charge continuing her dominant season. The Wildcats led 18-4 after the first quarter. Blountstown had no answers for the lady Wildcats. Harris, who has tallied 418 points this year, vowed to bring home a state championship and has backed up her words with stellar play. She is now just one win away from ending her career with a state championship. She’s a player who has done everything she possibly could at the high school level. This is the one thing missing from her incredible career.
“Trinidy has meant everything to us,” Wildwood head coach Vincent Brown Sr. said. “She’s matured so much as a player and a leader. This is her moment.”
Freshman Zoey Brown has had an amazing year and she showed up today. Brown showcased the poise that has made her one of the team’s most reliable scorers. Junior Kayla Lyde chipped in while freshman Ja’Niya Corbin and junior Adejah Corbin didn’t allow the Tigers anything on defense.
(Photo Credit – Joe Ott)
Blountstown (20-7) struggled to find an offensive rhythm against Wildwood’s relentless defense. The Tigers’ top scorer, sophomore Cyianna Smith couldn’t get going due to Wildwood’s suffocating pressure. Sophomore Jalynn Copeland also was kept at bay by the Wildwood defense. Wildwood played incredibly quickly and you could see the frustration building after the first quarter for the Tigers. Unfortunately they could not recover and Wildwood is headed to the state championship once again.
With just one game standing between them and a state championship, Wildwood will now prepare for its biggest challenge yet. We hope you all of Wildwood can make the trip down to Lakeland on Friday evening for what should be a very entertaining matchup!
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.
