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He was the sum of scattershot parts: Cornhusker and creature of habit, Jersey boy and gym enthusiast. John Castelamare was betrothed to superstition, a throwback offense and a philosophy that seems trite in an instant-gratification society.
In his heyday as Wesley Chapel High football coach, Castelamare rose seven minutes earlier than normal on game days (specifically, 4:33 a.m.) because his favorite baseball player, Mickey Mantle, wore No. 7. He had the same pregame meal (roast beef and Swiss on grilled rye, no onions) from a nearby restaurant. Each of his players, from thousand-yard rushers to third-stringers, were held to the same rigid standards.
And his sideline attire (tie, khakis and a white, short-sleeved button-down shirt) made him one of the area’s most distinctive Friday night figures. While that enslavement to ritual and creed produced no state titles nor even deep playoff runs, they did earn him loyalty, respect and a niche in local prep football lore.
“Coach Cas was old-school, hard-line, compassionate, caring and had the highest expectations for his players in all aspects of their lives,” said former Pasco High coach Tom McHugh, a longtime Castelamare assistant.
The third-winningest coach in Pasco County prep football history, Castelamare died earlier this weekend of a heart attack, his daughter, Brittany, said. A dad of two and grandfather of five, he was 75. His 103-130 record over 23 seasons at Ridgewood and Wesley Chapel puts him behind only Land O’Lakes’ John Benedetto (195) and Zephyrhills’ Tom Fisher (124) on the county’s career wins list.
Fisher died Feb 9 after battling a rare brain disorder for several years.
“(Castelamare) was fair, he was loyal, he put family first,” said former Wesley Chapel assistant Brian Colding, who taught and coached with Castelamare for 12 years. “And in the grand scheme of things ... I think people would think football was first. I think out of the four things I just named, football was last.”
An undersized linebacker at New Jersey juggernaut Don Bosco Prep in the mid-1960s, Castelamare tried to further his playing career at Nebraska. Initially the Cornhuskers’ No. 8 middle linebacker under then-defensive coordinator Tom Osborne, he earned a spot on the kickoff team, but his career was derailed by six surgeries on his left knee. Castelamare graduated, however, earning a degree in special education.
A sprawling coaching career ensued, first with assistant gigs at Tampa’s Madison Junior High and Leto High before Castelamare was hired as second head coach at Ridgewood in New Port Richey.
Mostly bereft of blue chip-caliber talent, his Rams teams went 41-79 over 12 seasons, but his wing-T later flourished at Wesley Chapel, which he started from scratch (with players from nearby Pasco and Land O’Lakes) when the school opened in 1999.
Not that the program’s launch was easy. Though his inaugural Wildcats team had no upperclassmen, Castelamare declined an option to play a junior varsity schedule, and his first team won only one game on the field (though another later was awarded via forfeit). Lopsided defeats were frequent initially, but Castelamare refused to play with a second-half running clock.
“When I asked him why, he responded, ‘I never want my boys to learn to quit,‘” McHugh said. “The first time is hard but every time after is easier, and pretty soon they won’t even know they are quitting.‘”
By the third year, the Wildcats had hit their stride. Buoyed in part by two-time county rushing leader Tyrone Tomlin, Wesley Chapel began a stretch of 35 wins and three district titles in a four-year span. The common denominator during that run: a coach who loved pasta, Vince Lombardi and weightlifting but eschewed profanity and favoritism.
“The life lessons that he taught and the one that I’ve tried to emulate the most — and it’s really, really hard to do — is, he treated everybody the same,” Colding said.
“He made the third-string kid on the team feel like you’re the most integral part of the team. He never had favoritism toward the superstars. If Tyrone Tomlin messed up, Tyrone Tomlin was paying the same price that everybody else did.”
Success ultimately tapered off, and Castelamare was forced to step down following the 2009 season when his request for an extension in the school system’s deferred retirement option program (DROP) was denied. He later launched a six-player program (which evolved into eight-player football) at Academy at the Lakes before retiring for good in 2014.
“Much of what I know about coaching high school football players, I learned from Coach Cas,” said McHugh, a member of Castelamare’s inaugural Wesley Chapel staff. “I have tried hard to emulate him over the years, and most times when making a big decision I would ask myself, ‘What would Coach Cas do?‘”
Contact Joey Knight at [email protected]. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls
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In his heyday as Wesley Chapel High football coach, Castelamare rose seven minutes earlier than normal on game days (specifically, 4:33 a.m.) because his favorite baseball player, Mickey Mantle, wore No. 7. He had the same pregame meal (roast beef and Swiss on grilled rye, no onions) from a nearby restaurant. Each of his players, from thousand-yard rushers to third-stringers, were held to the same rigid standards.
And his sideline attire (tie, khakis and a white, short-sleeved button-down shirt) made him one of the area’s most distinctive Friday night figures. While that enslavement to ritual and creed produced no state titles nor even deep playoff runs, they did earn him loyalty, respect and a niche in local prep football lore.
“Coach Cas was old-school, hard-line, compassionate, caring and had the highest expectations for his players in all aspects of their lives,” said former Pasco High coach Tom McHugh, a longtime Castelamare assistant.
The third-winningest coach in Pasco County prep football history, Castelamare died earlier this weekend of a heart attack, his daughter, Brittany, said. A dad of two and grandfather of five, he was 75. His 103-130 record over 23 seasons at Ridgewood and Wesley Chapel puts him behind only Land O’Lakes’ John Benedetto (195) and Zephyrhills’ Tom Fisher (124) on the county’s career wins list.
Fisher died Feb 9 after battling a rare brain disorder for several years.
“(Castelamare) was fair, he was loyal, he put family first,” said former Wesley Chapel assistant Brian Colding, who taught and coached with Castelamare for 12 years. “And in the grand scheme of things ... I think people would think football was first. I think out of the four things I just named, football was last.”
An undersized linebacker at New Jersey juggernaut Don Bosco Prep in the mid-1960s, Castelamare tried to further his playing career at Nebraska. Initially the Cornhuskers’ No. 8 middle linebacker under then-defensive coordinator Tom Osborne, he earned a spot on the kickoff team, but his career was derailed by six surgeries on his left knee. Castelamare graduated, however, earning a degree in special education.
A sprawling coaching career ensued, first with assistant gigs at Tampa’s Madison Junior High and Leto High before Castelamare was hired as second head coach at Ridgewood in New Port Richey.
Mostly bereft of blue chip-caliber talent, his Rams teams went 41-79 over 12 seasons, but his wing-T later flourished at Wesley Chapel, which he started from scratch (with players from nearby Pasco and Land O’Lakes) when the school opened in 1999.
Not that the program’s launch was easy. Though his inaugural Wildcats team had no upperclassmen, Castelamare declined an option to play a junior varsity schedule, and his first team won only one game on the field (though another later was awarded via forfeit). Lopsided defeats were frequent initially, but Castelamare refused to play with a second-half running clock.
“When I asked him why, he responded, ‘I never want my boys to learn to quit,‘” McHugh said. “The first time is hard but every time after is easier, and pretty soon they won’t even know they are quitting.‘”
By the third year, the Wildcats had hit their stride. Buoyed in part by two-time county rushing leader Tyrone Tomlin, Wesley Chapel began a stretch of 35 wins and three district titles in a four-year span. The common denominator during that run: a coach who loved pasta, Vince Lombardi and weightlifting but eschewed profanity and favoritism.
“The life lessons that he taught and the one that I’ve tried to emulate the most — and it’s really, really hard to do — is, he treated everybody the same,” Colding said.
“He made the third-string kid on the team feel like you’re the most integral part of the team. He never had favoritism toward the superstars. If Tyrone Tomlin messed up, Tyrone Tomlin was paying the same price that everybody else did.”
Success ultimately tapered off, and Castelamare was forced to step down following the 2009 season when his request for an extension in the school system’s deferred retirement option program (DROP) was denied. He later launched a six-player program (which evolved into eight-player football) at Academy at the Lakes before retiring for good in 2014.
“Much of what I know about coaching high school football players, I learned from Coach Cas,” said McHugh, a member of Castelamare’s inaugural Wesley Chapel staff. “I have tried hard to emulate him over the years, and most times when making a big decision I would ask myself, ‘What would Coach Cas do?‘”
Contact Joey Knight at [email protected]. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls
Continue reading...
