Project 1,000 :: Jenna Castillo
9/3/2013 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Sep 3, 2013
Thirteen Montana freshman soccer and volleyball players. Thirteen stories. Each 1,000 words. Today: Jenna Castillo, a midfielder on the Griz soccer team from Newport Beach, Calif.
Another Profile 1,000 article following another interview on the front steps of Craig Hall. Another soccer player from Southern California, the third in three weeks. Another predictable storyline, right?
Girl is immersed in sports by her athletic parents, falls in love with soccer and makes it her life, plays club in the best club-playing region of the U.S. and blossoms into a Division I talent, gets contacted by Montana coach Mark Plakorus, visits campus and is sold, moves to Missoula in early August and is struck by the laidback atmosphere of Missoula as compared to the hustle and bustle of SoCal.
I love it here! I love my life!! I love my teammates!!! This was the best decision of my life!!!!
But the beauty of every story is in the details that lie beneath the broad generalizations, and that is where you learn about Jenna Castillo, a freshman midfielder from Newport Beach, Calif.
And there is no better place to start than with those italicized exclamatory sentences two paragraphs up, because Castillo is either the first athlete being profiled in this series to admit she had doubts about her decision or the first one to have the courage to voice them.
"At first I was really homesick and kind of questioning myself," she says about her first days in Missoula. An understandable lament after being removed from two things she loves: her family and her hometown.
First, Newport Beach: "It's pretty awesome. I love it there. I love the beach." Which are mostly superficial loves. The second, her family, is a love of much greater depth, one that will provide an emotional tug no matter where Castillo is in her life.
Castillo is the fourth of Phil and Julie's six children, arriving after Nate, Luke and Claire and before Leah and Peter. And while it's easy to cite the platitude that the Grizzly soccer team takes on the role of family when you're trying to replace your own, it's not blood.
"I love having a big family," she says. "It's always nice to have someone there, because you're rarely home alone."
But the questioning has ended, as has the homesickness.
"The freshmen on the team have been close from the start, but things got easier when I started bonding with the older girls," she says. "I started to get more comfortable, and I was able to focus on soccer and not being nervous all the time. Now I really like it."
Castillo is both laconic and guarded in an interview setting, but she allows just enough to address the other generalizations.
... girl is immersed in sports by her athletic parents ...
The subjects of the first two Project 1,000 articles, Payton Agnew and Carlee Bates, both had a father who played a sport in college. But Castillo's genes? When matched up against your genes or mine, the term "woodshed" comes to mind.
Phil Castillo, a son of California, was raised on water polo. He was good enough to not only play at Long Beach State, he also represented the U.S. in international competition. And Julie Castillo? She played volleyball at Pepperdine.
That Jenna Castillo developed into a Division I athlete is not a surprise. What is is how that came to be.
"My parents have never forced their kids to play sports. They encouraged us to pursue anything we were passionate about," she says. "They were open to whatever I wanted to try, and they supported me in whatever I decided to do."
... falls in love with soccer and makes it her life ...
Nate followed his dad into water polo and played at Golden West College and later at Pepperdine. Jenna gave the sport a try as well, but soccer ultimately won out.
"Water polo is a huge sport where I'm from, and you have to be super dedicated," she says. "I liked it, but I also wanted to play soccer too. It was all just too time-consuming, and I was more passionate about soccer, so I committed to that."
... plays club in the best club-playing region of the U.S. and blossoms into a Division I talent ...
Castillo says she began to come on as a player when she made two upgrades in the talent she was playing with and competing against. The first was when she moved up to Newport Harbor High. The second was when she joined a more competitive club team.
"I think I really started developing as a player when I got into my freshman year of high school and got to play with girls who were older than me," she says. "And I moved to a better club team, Wolfpack, and things really took off from there."
... gets contacted by Montana coach Mark Plakorus ...
This is where Castillo's story diverges from the others and circles back to Phil. Despite sounding like a product of the beach and the water, he long ago developed a love of Montana and the hunting and fishing the state offered.
So what better combination than to have a daughter who plays soccer at the state university?
"The schools that were talking to me were not ones I was really interested in, so one day after my dad got back from another trip to Montana, he said, `Why don't you email the coach and just see.'
"So I sent Mark some footage, and he responded right away, which is pretty rare for a Division I coach. That brought my interest up even more."
Those strings that connect her heart back to her family? They'll never be broken, and she won't have to go long between family visits. Credit Montana, the state, for that.
"My dad came on (my official visit) as well, though I think mostly as a reason to fish," Castillo says. "He spent the day on the river while Mark was showing me around campus.
"At the end of the day, my dad said, `Don't worry, I'll visit you a lot.' "
