Iowa star Sebastian Castro carries fighting spirit

Iowa star Sebastian Castro rose from humble beginnings to become one of the best safeties in the Big Ten. Over the last two seasons, the Chicago native with Mexican roots has also been one of the top Latinos in college football.

Castro, the 2023 Latino College Football Player of the Year, is again a finalist for Our Esquina’s Latino Player of the Year Award. He sat down with Our Esquina’s Carlos Leon-Trejo for an extensive Q&A session.

Not surprisingly, he carries a warrior’s spirit and appreciates Mexican boxing great Canelo Alvarez. He is close with his mother Ruby Gonzalez, who raised him as a single mom with the help of her parents.

We lightly edited the Q&A for brevity.

Following mom

Carlos: So who would you say are like your biggest role models on and off the field? 

Sebastian: I would say my mom. I grew up watching her a lot. Just just how she cared, how she carried herself, how she would go about her day, how she went about her life really. I think that she has had a lot of influence on me since I’ve been a kid.

And my grandparents as well. But I thought about my mom the most because I was always very close with her. So I would say my mom. I mean, yeah, there’s always little different things I like, like Ray Lewis, football players who I grew up watching.

But I didn’t know them personally. 
So, I guess that’s why I said mom first … because I’ve seen it first hand. There’s a lot of respect there.

C: What are you thinking of doing after football?

S: 
Actually, I don’t know exactly as of right now what I want to do. I’ve been an athlete my whole life. I’m getting a little piece of the business world and seeing how I could fit in.

But in terms of exactly what I wanna do I can’t tell you exactly what I got in store or plans. I just know I want to play football as long as I can or until they kick me out.

Neighborhood lessons

C: When did you first realize you had a passion for football? 

S: 
In my neighborhood I grew up in I was one of the kids that grew up playing outside until dark. Either I was playing sports or I was playing video games growing up. I guess I got the love of competition growing up from playing video games and playing sports, but I love football.

I used to play football before I actually played on a real team. So I guess being a part of a team and growing up with kids and that they’re from similar backgrounds I guess that’s why I learned to love it like just trying to win a championship.

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And losing it after every year and being really bad and just like the process of finally being good and then being in a championship at a young age. I feel like that’s why I really learned to love it because it’s like you’re playing with your brothers. 

When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a soldier. Watching movies or whatever. 
So I guess it was like the closest thing to it, like just being on the battlefield. So I mean, I guess I still carry it.

That’s how I still look at it today. That’s why I love football for what it is. I try not to make too much out of it like sports and media and all the extra camera stuff and everything. 
So, I loved it at a young age.

Building on success

C: How do you prepare mentally and physically for big games that you know are coming up?

S:  I think it’s all in the routine, keeping the same routine. Trying to prepare each game the same, knowing that one week you might play a really good team with a good record or whatever. And one week you don’t play a team with the same record, not as good or whatever.

Ignoring that and understanding the fact that every team and every player, anything can change from any day when it comes to sports because they can come out and just be a different team, a different player with a different, like a different attitude. 

So that’s why I think it’s a tough thing in the Big Ten. … Like when we play Ohio State and then you play the team that has the worst record. 


So like now you can’t treat these guys lightly. You have to treat them all the same and understand that whoever we’re gonna play on this day, it’s gonna be the best team we’ll ever play on this day. It doesn’t matter who it is, you can’t treat anyone different.

You have to treat them differently in that sense of like this guy is good at this thing or that thing, but don’t count out the underdog in that sense. Everyone is dangerous, and you have to be at your best at all times. I just judge the time processing by understanding that and respecting the game in that sense.

Dealing with pressure

C: 
 How do you handle pressure and adversity?

S: That was a skill that I had to learn in a sense of pressure. Adversity, I think, it’s easier to deal with me personally because I think adversity is something that already happened to you.

So then you have to bounce back. But pressure is like leading up to the moment before the adversity even happens. Just dealing with the pressure comes with confidence.

Confidence is a skill that you have to build on to understand, like what kind of self doubt you got? How you got to talk to yourself just so you can believe in something you’re the best. Because as an athlete that’s what we’re taught.




Belief

Even if you’re not the best player, you have to believe that you are. And whatever you’re good at, you have to make sure that’s what you get your confidence from, because you understand what kind of player you are and you’re actually good.

I think this is a skill. 
It’s not just saying words. It’s not just saying you’re the best and that you should just believe. You’re the best every time you step in the field. 


But with adversity that comes with understanding when you lose that’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to win. You’re going to lose. And it’s bound to happen. 
You’re never going to be perfect. There’s no such thing.

I guess, the emotional attachment of being one to be perfect that’s how I deal with it. It’s not going to be like a storybook ending where it’s just a happy ending. 
So that’s why I like sports because it just keeps you on your toes. It’s like life. You just keep on going on and on. 

C: How do you feel representing the Latino culture in football and possibly even going to the next level? 

‘Love being Mexican’

S: I love it. 
Sometimes I forget, but there’s just an attitude that is ingrained in me. It just separates me in a sense. That’s why I follow a lot of the top athletes in other sports, like Canelo.

Just like the grit, just loving the fight. I grew up like that. I was following my cousins, following my family the most. My cousins I grew up with and we just grew up playing football, tackling each other and boxing just because I don’t know, we’re dumb.

But yeah, it’s just how it is. I love being Mexican. I’m very appreciative. I probably wouldn’t be the same athlete if I wasn’t because of how I was raised and how it was instilled in me. 

I love you asking that question because football is simple to me and you just go out there and just wish someone would try to beat me. If you’re going to have to beat me, you’re going to have to beat me. 
Like you’re going to have to kill me to do this, as vulgar as it sounds. But no, like that’s how real it gets. I’m not going to lose.

And when someone hits me really hard I get dazed, maybe they would like to knock me out. 
I mean like I love it. Like let’s go again. Let’s do it again.

Like I’m going to keep on coming until I’m done. 
And that’s why I like football because it’s just how I grew up, you know? So that’s what I know right now. It can get intense out there. I love it.

C: Who supported you the most growing up going to your football games and always being there for you? 

Strong familial support

S: I think about that a lot. Like I know there are people that like their parents to be at the game or their family to be at the game. I guess I was never really like that. I know how that sounds. I was always there with my teammates, my brothers.

Like I was there with them, like actually at the time and still to date, like that’s how I am. They could be in the stands, but I don’t need that, like I just understand these are the guys that I worked my ass off with.

We could play in an empty stadium and just our team and their team, and I’m OK with that because that’s all I really need. There, just put it point blank, and that’s what I’m telling you. That’s why I love the game. It’s really simple to me.

You want your parents to be there, but it’s not like “Oh, my mom’s not here, like, oh, damn.” You know?
I love my mom, but that is just how I approach the game. I just need my brothers, my teammates there.

Childhood football memories

C: What can you describe as a favorite childhood football memory or just a memory of football in general? 

S: I mean there were a few big moments like because I started playing organized football like in third grade. And we always were really bad and bad year after year. Then eventually you start climbing, getting better, but we never won the championship until my seventh grade year. 
We actually won the championship where the Chicago Fire plays. 
We played there. 

It was like in a stadium, so it was like a Super Bowl being a kid. We won and I remember it just felt good because we worked so hard every year and we finally accomplished a big goal. I remember not starting for college for many years and then I got to play on special teams for the first time. 

My junior year, I did not make a play. I finally showcased it to everybody, I guess to the world what I can do because I didn’t know they knew what kind of plays I could make.

I made a big play and that kind of changed the game and being a young guy and to just show and prove what I could do to myself really, that I can do it at this level, so it felt good. 
A memory that I won’t forget.

Focusing on football 

C: Why football? 
Why is football the sport you enjoy?

S: The thing is what I like to do right now, and that’s just like the stage I am in my life right now because this is what I know. It’s just what I grew up to and it’s pretty simple to me, you know? 
It’s what I can fall back on at the end of the day. I don’t know.

When football isn’t there one day I’m going to find something else that I love, which I will. I love football because all the things we just talked about is just the whole thing about being ready for the games and the mental preparation, understanding that you’re going to get in a fight for the next three hours and you’re just planning to win the game.

You understand that you’re not going to win every game. It’s not possible, but like giving your best shot and we will deal with the cards after the fact. That’s what I do. I’ve invested so much time into it, it is just like who I am now in a sense.

And all I know is like a lot of my energy, but my focus goes into this. I strive if I want to be the best I can be. I look up to guys like Ronaldo, like the top guys that made a lot of history.

I want to be as best as I can be, so I would do whatever I got to do to be a good athlete. Growing up, I just wanted to be the best. 

NFL aspirations

C: Growing up, did you ever play any other sports before football, or has it always been football?

S: I grew up playing everything, basketball, soccer, and whatever we could find, to be honest, just like little games like four square or go up in a park. 

C:  Do you believe you might see yourself in the league next season?

S: I definitely see myself in the league next year and for the years to come. I feel like football is still football at the end of the day. It’s the NFL.

It’s just a different level of talent, but football is just still football and it makes me confident in saying that because I’ve seen a lot of guys that came to this building to Iowa and just doing the same things they’ve done to like, why can’t I do the same thing?

No, keep on keeping on playing. I want to be the best. I’m going to just be my best.