The red-headed kid with a big presence - Castle was a force as BV lineman, thrower

There’s an iconic newspaper photo of Will Castle hoisting a teammate, running back Michael Bellmore, high into the air following a Lynx touchdown.

Castle well remembers the picture-worthy moment.

The photo is clearly symbolic of the team player that Castle, a three-year starter on both the defensive and offensive lines was for the Brandon Valley Lynx. The three-year letter winner helped lead the Lynx to the 2006 Eastern South Dakota Football Conference Championship.

“I remember that we beat Pierre my senior year, that first game of the year,” Castle recalls. “(The lift) it kind of just happened. It wasn’t like it was choreographed like end zone dances nowadays that you see on TV. I still remember that we locked eyes and he jumped up and I grabbed him and put him up in the air. Then it was on the front page of the Argus the next day, so it was kind of cool.”

Football, however, wasn’t Castle’s only sport in which he made his “paw” print in. As a thrower for BV’s track and field team, he was a four-year varsity letter winner, amassing a slew of points in both discus and shot put. His technique, combined with strength, rewarded him with three trips to the state meet from his sophomore through senior seasons. He capped off his prep track and field career with a seventh-place finish in the discus and a sixth-place finish in the shot put.

Castle said his dad told him he needed to pick either baseball or track. He opted for the latter, following in his brother, Luke Castle’s footsteps in the sport.

“I was just always around it. I went to all of his meets, and so I did it in middle school and was somewhat successful and had a good experience with Coach Henn. He was probably the most joking around coach I’ve ever had my life, but he taught us how to throw and made practice enjoyable, and then just a bunch of my friends did track, so I figured I might as well, –and you get out, you get out of school early,” he said.

As a thrower, following Henn’s retirement Castle was coached by Chuck Plummer for a season and then Jeff Trout, who became his neighbor when his family moved across the street from the Trout family. 

“We got to be pretty good friends,” Castle remembers. “He was a good throwing coach back in the day and made this enjoyable, so it wasn’t like it was torture going to track. It was basically an hour to just have fun and throw the shot and stay active.”

It was because of his personal experience in high school sports and connection to his coaches that Castle went on to earn a teaching degree and coaching credentials from South Dakota State.

“I told someone this the other day, that I can’t name a coach I did not like or a coach that I didn’t get along with,” he said.

Filling dual roles on BV’s front line, Castle’s effort gained him All-Conference, All-State and Elite 45 honors for both his junior and senior football seasons, 2006 and 2007. As a senior captain, his leadership is reflected in the numbers he put up as a defensive lineman: 31 solo tackles, 16 assisted tackles, and nine tackles for loss.

He was equally a beast on the offensive side of the ball, where he anchored a line that amassed 1,844 rushing yards, 1,190 yards passing, 316 total points and average 28.7 points per game.

Jason Bisbee’s first interaction with the future Lynx Hall of Famer came in his second year of teaching at BV. The eighth-grade Castle elected to take a paint-by-numbers course.

“I just think of this big, giant, red-head in the eighth grade painting a little kitten portrait or a flag portrait,” Bisbee recalled.

While the memory brings a smile to Bisbee, what the offensive line coach came to realize is that Castle would help him become a better coach.

“I remember something he said to me, just kind of an inspirational thing to me as a player just talking to his coach: ‘You know, you don’t have to be so angry,’” Bisbee shares. “I just had a great coaching experience with him. As a sophomore, he started for us and was just a very, very talented kid that did everything right. He was just a tremendous leader in that way, and a kid that you knew was going to be really successful in high school and college.”

Unlike today’s BV Lynx teams, Castle was called to play both sides of the ball. Bisbee said that’s a tough job.

“When we were playing the smaller schools, you can get away with it, but once you start playing schools that go one way, you don’t get away with it anymore, and that’s why it was tough to compete against the Roosevelts and the Lincolns and Washingtons,” Bisbee said.

No matter if he was on defense or offense, one position he always played was that of “team captain.”

“Will is a very, very physical football player. He practiced incredibly hard and technique was important to him. I think it was lead by example on the field, and when big, strong kids do cool things, kids follow,” Bisbee said. “He wasn’t arrogant, he wasn’t cocky, but he was definitely confident.”

From Brandon Valley, Castle went on to play football at South Dakota State, where he became a fixture for the Jackrabbits’ offensive line, and earned a starting position for three years. His senior season was rewarded with Missouri Valley All-Conference recognition at the Center position.

Bisbee said State was the right place for Castle to continue his football career.

“But he had to work hard to get in there,” Bisbee said. “It wasn’t like, here’s a ton of money and go play for us. For Will, it was, ‘Come walk in and we’ll see what happens.’ He definitely earned his money.”

Brother Luke was his inspiration

When Castle signed up for his first year of PeeWee football, he make it by one pound.

“I wasn’t a ringer. I didn’t have to wear the red stripe on my helmet, and then the next three years I did,” he remembers.

But it wasn’t PeeWee football where he first learned how to compete.

“I had an older brother who was three years older me, who showed me a lot of just, like work ethic, how to play football, he threw as well, so I give a lot of credit to Luke for just maybe toughening me up, installing a mindset attitude that if you work hard and be more physical than other people, you’re going to have some success,” he said. “I remember getting beat up in the driveway, whether we were playing basketball or tackle football, and then it would quickly get to a point where dad would have come break it up. So, I learned a lot from him and in middle school as a lineman, I was always a good-sized kid, and then high school just got in the weight room and I kind of blossomed there.”

In his role as a coach, Castle instills the importance of the weight room.

“Everywhere I’ve been coaching I just stress that the weight room is probably one of the most important things for a football player or any athlete in general. Those are some of the best times in high school, just living with your buddies after school and trying to get stronger and challenging each other, pushing each other. I think that’s when Brandon Valley football took a turn with Jack VanLeur. We were .500 my sophomore year, and the next year, we made it to the semis and lost to the state champion. Then my senior year we lost in the second round to the eventual state champion. Then they had Austin (Sumner) and they broke into the semis again and lost,” he said. 

Once a Lynx,

always a Lynx

Although Castle’s career has brought him to Watertown, where he teaches middle school health and physical education, coaches eighth-grade basketball, and works with throwers and football players, he’ll always be a Lynx at heart.His memories of game nights, support from the fans, classmates, and especially his family, are his most treasured memories of that time.

“Growing up back in the day, Friday night games were everything. When I was little, we lived two blocks away from the high school, so we’d walk to the games. I can name Jon Montoya, Alan Pudwill, PJ Hiller, all those guys who I looked up to as an elementary and middle school kid,” he said. “The community was – and still is – so supportive of every sporting event there. I also remember going to basketball games and having to get there at 4:30 to watch Mike Miller play against Austin Hansen, so I think there’s just been a lot of fortunate, pretty athletic kids come along and mixed with a good core group of coaches that kind of made something special. It’s just been amazing how long they can sustain all the success they’ve had.”

Today, Bisbee considers Castle as a friend. Their career paths – teaching and coaching – and outside interests keep them connected.

“He’s very similar to me. Will’s a guy that is good around kids and he loves the game,” he said. “As a player, Will had a tremendous impact on me because he worked so hard, and now, I call him a close friend of mine, so that’s pretty cool.”

The BV and Watertown offensive line coaches are also both Hall of Fame inductees.

“A couple years ago, I got inducted in the Pierre Hall of Fame, and I thought to myself, ‘What did I do on this line?’ I didn’t average 25 points a game in basketball and we didn’t win a state championship in Pierre. I think for Will it’s the same. He’s not going to go up there and (talk about) throwing for 300 yards a game or about scoring 20 points a game. He’s just the guy that did his job, and he did it so well that he’s being recognized for it years later. I think that’s super cool, because, as an offensive lineman, there’s no statistics. He’s had a school record for football, but he definitely set the bar for the offensive line every year. I’ve been doing this for 23 years, and I always take pride in our players. We’ve got some really good players because of guys like Will and the guys before him and so forth, and I think that’s something to be proud of on his end, that people wanted to be like him and play like him.”

Gaining induction into his high school’s hall of fame holds special meaning for the “big, red-headed kid at heart.”

“It’s a great honor,” Castle said. “It’s a very special group of people that have gone in the past, people I’ve looked up to, like Austin Hansen, that whole like ‘98 state basketball team, and then some of the coaches that I’ve had that have been inducted, and then some teammates like Austin Sumner and Chase Douglas, who were my good friends that I had in high school, and then fortunate enough to be in college with them. I’m still trying to figure out how I made it. I was a good lineman, and an average track athlete, so, I don’t know if I’m exactly deserving, but I guess some people think I am.”