December 2, 2024
Wildwood’s Lorenzo Fields Named Style Magazine’s FHSAA Class 1A Football Coach Of The Year
By Kyle Coppola
Wildwood’s Lorenzo Fields Named Style Magazine’s FHSAA Class 1A Football Coach Of The Year
Wildwood, Fla. – Lorenzo Fields, head coach of the Wildwood Middle High School football team, has been named the FHSAA Class 1A Coach of the Year by Lake & Sumter Style Magazine after leading the Wildcats to a season that continues with a Regional Finals matchup against Port St. Joe. Fields, a Wildwood alumnus and former star quarterback, returned to his alma mater in January 2024 to take the reins of the football program, which he was tasked with revitalizing.
For Fields, the honor comes full circle. A 1985 graduate of Wildwood High School, he was an all-state quarterback who guided the Wildcats to consecutive state championship games in 1984 and 1985. After earning a football scholarship to Eastern Kentucky University, Fields enjoyed a standout collegiate career, leading his team to an undefeated regular season and No. 1 national ranking in 1990 before a late-season injury dashed their championship hopes.
(Lorenzo Fields came over from Hernando High School earlier this year.)
Returning to Wildwood as a coach has been a homecoming for Fields in more ways than one. While this is his first head coaching role, Fields previously served as the team’s offensive coordinator in the early 1990s before pursuing a career in education and juvenile justice. His deep ties to the community and passion for the game have helped Wildwood remain focused even when the going got tough in 2024.
Coach Fields embodies the spirit of Wildwood football. His leadership, vision, and belief in the students have helped Wildwood turn into a contender. While it may have been a challenging start to the year, the team hit its stride late in the season where they began playing their best football of the year.
(Fields was the quarterback of Wildwood Middle High in the Mid 1980s and brought Wildwood to two consecutive State Championship games.)
After a challenging 2-7 season in 2023, Fields promised to bring a new energy to the Wildcats. His first season at the helm has been a success. Wildwood has returned to being a threat in the FHSAA Rural Class and they have a massive opportunity this Friday evening to do something special and get to the State Semifinals.
As the Wildcats prepare for their biggest challenge yet against Port St. Joe in the Regional Finals we are reminded of the work that goes into putting a winning football team together. We are happy to see Wildwood back to being a contender.
Congratulations to coach Lorenzo Fields, to his team and players on a great year.
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.
