Wrestling Coach Jesse Castro

[Sly Fox]

Well, it looks like we now have a man to head our revival of the wrestling program. And he's a familiar face:

Castro leaves Kingsway for college job

Wednesday, July 13, 2005
By Bill Evans
[e-mail]

Kingsway Regional High School wrestling coach Jesse Castro faced an inner struggle the last two years, knowing his alma mater, Liberty University, would be reinstating its wrestling program and that he would be a candidate for the head coaching position.

While Liberty is a dream job for Castro -- a former collegiate head coach at Norwich University in Vermont who previously assisted at Liberty -- he has debated the right course because of his affection for Kingsway, where he spent the last eight years.

Ultimately, Castro decided the opportunity to return to his alma mater as head coach was too enticing to pass up. He has resigned from Kingsway to accept the job at Liberty.

Castro built up a 129-33-1 record during his tenure with the Dragons, winning one state title, five South Jersey crowns, five division championships and three district titles. In 2002, he led junior Brandon Becker -- who captured All-American honors for Indiana University in March -- to the 145-pound state championship.

This past season, Castro led his young team to a 14-4 record and a spot in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III final after an upset victory over rival Delsea.

Castro came to Kingsway in 19997 at the behest of long-time Delsea wrestling coach and current athletic director Steve Iles, a close friend and former teammate at Liberty.

Liberty, located in Lynchburg, Va., announced in February its intention to reinstate the program, which will begin Division I competition in the 2006-2007 season. The school wanted a coach in place this year to begin recruiting and scheduling.

Wrestling was a varsity sport at Liberty from 1974 to 1994. The Liberty University Wrestling Foundation, which is a group of alumni and supporters of the former program, has been raising funds to help facilitate the return of wrestling.

Castro, regardless of whether he decided to return to his alma mater as coach, was a big supporter of wrestling being reinstated at the university.

www.nj.com/sports/gloucester/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1121242535260860.xml&coll=8

[PAmedic]

Sounds good- we need a guy from the northeast to run this program: ya gotta have the right mentality to wrestle. Can you tell I'm an old hag former wrestler?(the best are a bit crazy, so I qualify- at least in the psychiatric sense)\

Welcome back Jesse, hope to hear good things about the program in the next year or so.

[Stevev]

Seems like a good pick to me choosing someone who was an assistant on some good teams at LU. I hope that things will work out for the better as we take on some quality competition and maybe join the Colonial conference, which is were we were before dropping the program.

[PAmedic]

I'm willing to bet there is are quite a few former HS wrestlers walking around campus (well, maybe not right NOW but you get my drift) that could contribute. Yeah, the first few years will be a little lean, but back in the '80s LU was THE place for christian kids to go that wanted to wrestle D1- I'm sure it wouldn't take long to grow a rep again.

[Sly Fox]

Are there any other Christian colleges who have DI wrestling programs? I'm not aware of any. Most of the big Christian colleges in the South dropped their programs due to Title IX years ago when we did.

[Sly Fox]

The Lynchburg fishwrap finally runs a story on Castro nearly a month after we had it in this thread:

Former LU wrestler takes over program for Flames

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
August 9, 2005

Liberty University athletics director Thom Park didn’t stray far from home to find a head coach for the school’s resurrected wrestling program.

Jesse Castro, a former LU wrestler and a master builder of wrestling programs, has been named the Flames’ head coach as the sport prepares to return to campus for the first time since 1994. Castro most recently helped turn the struggling Kingsway Regional High School program around in New Jersey, and he played an instrumental role in building Division III Norwich (Vt.) University into a national power.

He knows rebuilding Liberty’s program will be a much more difficult task.

“I’ll be quite frank with you,” Castro said in a phone interview. “I know what I’m up against going into that area. Virginia Tech, Virginia and Old Dominion are institutions in that area that have very good programs. This is going to be quite a challenge.”

Castro’s main duties for the 2005-06 school year are to recruit athletes, hire a coaching staff and work on a schedule for the 2006-07 season, when the program will officially rejoin Division I.

“This guy has knocked the cover off the ball, both as a wrestler and as a high school and college coach,” Park said. “Every place this guy goes, he turns it around and brings it to great success. … We expect big things out of him.”

The 46-year-old Castro will start recruiting immediately, and he said he’s already gotten inquiries from 10-12 athletes on the LU campus. He expects more now that he has been officially announced as the team’s coach. He’ll use his knowledge of talent-rich New Jersey and Pennsylvania to his advantage in bringing other wrestlers to campus.

In an age where Division I wrestling programs are axed to meet Title IX requirements - 95 Division I schools field programs; in contrast, more than 330 schools sponsor men’s basketball - Castro is tickled to be part of bringing wrestling back at a school with a proud tradition in the sport.

“There was a time where we were the premier sport on campus,” Castro said. “We were fifth in the country in NCAA Division II and making our mark. To have that back is overwhelming.”

The Flames finished sixth at the 1986 Division II championships. In 1988, Warren Stewart became the school’s first national champion, taking the Division II title in the 142-pound weight class.

The program moved to Division I in 1989 and took seventh in the NCAA Eastern Regional. Its highest finish in the Division I rankings was in 1991 when LU was ranked 32nd.

www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784327342&path=!sports

[PAmedic]

very timely. we oughta start charging the media a source fee.

[PAmedic]

And I'm proud to say Warren Stewert kicked my butt back then. we were in the same weight class but thats the ONLY thing in common- the dude was AMAZING. and I was a decent HS wrestler.

[PAmedic]

I know this is old news, but figured we should put a face to the name.

WELCOME BACK, COACH!

[Sly Fox]

Its good to see a little Latino influence in our athletic department. Bienvenidos, Coach.

[PAmedic]

1200 posts SLY- very nice. Do you sleep?

[Sly Fox]

I hadn't noticed the post count. After the millenium mark, its really not much to care about these days.

As for sleep, I get home from work late at night and my kids get me up early. So in answer to your question, no I don't get any sleep.

As for my the time sof my posts, keep in mind I am Central Time Zone.