order to help support the family.
If there was one area Castillo developed a passion for when he was young though, it was football. The new athletic director has been involved in the sport since he was 8 years old, playing his early years in youth leagues and he said from his first day playing it was all he ever wanted to do
" I have stacks, stacks and stacks and stacks of plays I would just draw all day in class," Castillo said
Castillo carried that passion with him to high school and junior college where he would play as a defensive tackle. Eventually, he transferred to northern California to play for Cal Poly Humboldt where he played out his remaining years of eligibility.
It was also during his time at Humboldt where Castillo met his future wife, Leora. Castillo said her support in his journey of living a football life has also been pivotal as to where he is today.
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“ Listen to your dad. Just be patient, my dad would annoy me and say‘ you’ re alright, just be patient, it’ s gonna happen.’ That would be the one, just listen to him, he know’ s what he’ s talking about.”
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- Chris Castillo
" Early on, she had the real job when I [ was a grad assistant ] and taking lower paying college jobs to kind of get footing and become a coach," Castillo said. " Even still, she ' s taking care of all the hard stuff while I get to come up here and do this. Without her none of it works."
When Castillo started looking for coaching opportunities, he received years of tutelage of some pretty experienced names.
After getting his foot in the door as the junior varsity coach at a local high school near Humboldt, he eventually returned to the university as a graduate assistant coach on the defensive line.
Castillo credits his growth in the role to the defensive coordinator at the time, Jaime Hill, a former defensive backs coach for the San Francisco 49ers who took Castillo under his wing and mentored him. He also credited his head coach, Doug Adkins, for giving him the opportunity after having played under him.
After a three-year stint in Humboldt, Castillo moved to Cal Lutheran where he served under then-defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, the current head coach at Baylor, as well as head coach Scott Squires. Castillo had his first coaching stint in the Lone Star State at Texas Lutheran, starting as a defensive line coach before being promoted to defensive coordinator where he held the mantle for two years.
Castillo and his wife returned to California where they were able to be closer her family and he took a year-and-a-half break to figure out what direction to take his career next. Eventually the family decided that a good opportunity would be in the Texas high school football scene.
Castillo ' s first gig in the high school coaching scene came at Medina Valley High School where he served as the linebackers coach and defensive coordinator. However, his longest coaching tenure up to this point came from his partnership with Koy Detmer.
If that name sounds familiar, that ' s because he played in the NFL from 1997 to 2006 with the Philadelphia Eagles. His brother, Ty Detmer, is also a former Heisman Trophy winner.
Detmer and Castillo formed a coaching duo at Mission High School for five years and then another five at Somerset High School.
While Castillo said it was difficult to leave behind the bond and relationships built up over the past 10 years between those two schools, the goal of coaching in his mind as always been to become the head guy in a program. And when Greenville became available, it was an opportunity he couldn ' t pass up
The new coach couldn ' t have enough nice things to say about the community since arriving. Castillo thinks the kids in the athletic programs are great and adapting to the culture he is trying to set, the area itself fits the lifestyle needs of his family and the community has been more than welcoming While football is still the sport that Castillo is dedicated to, what really inspired him to become an athletic director were his daughters, Carleigh and Nora. Both of them were involved in sports like powerlifting and cross country and Castillo recalled how some of these programs were underdeveloped at previous schools. He made it a priority to increase participation and representation in those programs.
Castillo has a slogan that he likes to utilize in his position, which is MAGIC – Make A Greater Individual Commitment. That is the type of attitude he hopes to bring in the years to come for Greenville ISD.
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