Hard-hitting Iowa safety Sebastian Castro developed fearless football instincts at young age

IOWA CITY — Sebastian Castro recognized what Wisconsin was trying to do on fourth-and-1, and the 205-pound Iowa safety charged toward 245-pound Wisconsin running back Braelon Allen.

After delivering a big hit that jarred the ball loose and unsuccessfully trying to recover the fumble — a feat in itself against a running back with a 40-pound advantage — Castro was back on his feet as if it was any other play.

“It didn’t really hurt,” Castro said. "I got blessed with not really feeling it too much.“

The heftier Allen seemed to be “feeling it” a little more.

“Yeah, he definitely did,” Castro said. “I guess I’m sorry about that.”

Forceful, fearless tackles are nothing new for Castro, who “grew up like that” as he played with older kids in his Oak Lawn, Ill., neighborhood long before his days as a Big Ten defensive back.

The cul-de-sac in front of Castro’s childhood home was the informal playing field for the pick-up games. The weather, even if there was “eight inches of snow,” was not a deterrent.

“We would all play sports from the morning to night,” Castro said. “Football was one of the sports we played, and they got rough sometimes. ... We loved every second of it.”

An alternative venue for childhood sports games for an occasion like a family Christmas gathering was Castro’s basement, with couches and any other obstacles moved out of the way.

“It would be one guy at one end of the wall, and there’d be like four people waiting for him on the other side of the wall, and that one person has to score,” Castro said. “That’s probably the craziest we got.”

Castro estimated the age range was 8 to 18, with him being on the youngest end of the spectrum. His older cousins, who happened to be big fans of WWE wrestling, and his older brother Roque did not take mercy on young Sebastian.

“They would do the moves on me, and I was a small kid, so I couldn’t do anything about it,” Castro said. “I love that it happened, though, even though sometimes it hurt a lot. ... Surprisingly, never broke a bone.”

Not-so-little Sebastian now has reason to thank those cousins, who are “all married and have families and whatnot.”

“That's what really helped me,” Castro said. “I wasn’t really scared of anyone. I mean, at first I was, but it really helped playing with the older guys. It made me a lot better.”

His brother Roque, mother Ruby Gonzalez and often other family members consistently make the drive from the Chicago area to attend Castro’s games at Iowa.

“He’s got a great support system,” said Tony Sheehan, Castro’s high school football coach. “They’re always there for him to help him, but they also want to see him grow as well.”

A ‘missile’ in high school

Castro, at that point well-accustomed to the hard hits of football, “took off” as a sophomore playing on varsity at Richards High School in Oak Lawn.

“He’s like a missile,” Sheehan said. “He comes flying up, and he is not afraid to lay his body on the line. He brings the wood.”

Sheehan said Castro was “probably the hardest-working kid we’ve ever had.”

"Would come, work out in the morning and then stay after school and work out,“ Sheehan said. ”So he’d do a double workout.“

Castro also played quarterback for Richards, where he formed quite the offensive duo with current Iowa running back Leshon Williams.

“That was probably the best team we’ve had here in a long time,” Sheehan said.

Williams said Castro was “probably one of the main reasons I came to Iowa truthfully.”

"Back in high school, I couldn’t really believe it,“ Castro said. ”Because what do I got to do with choosing a school? But that’s a friend for life. We’ve been through things together.“

Castro did not have an expedient path to consistent playing time at Iowa.

He did not appear in any games as a true freshman and then appeared in one game as a redshirt freshman in 2020. Castro then took on a larger special teams role in 2021 while it “just wasn't clicking for him defensively,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said.

“It's fun to watch players because you don't know if it's going to be the fourth year or fifth year or third year, first year,” Ferentz said. “You just never know when a guy is going to start to have success.”

Then injuries to cornerbacks Jermari Harris and Terry Roberts early last year prompted Cooper DeJean to move from safety to cornerback and opened a spot for Castro at safety.

Castro started eight of Iowa’s last 10 games, including the Music City Bowl.

“At the end of last year is when it started clicking,” Ferentz said. “He's played well all season long, was huge the other night.”

Now, he is a mainstay in the secondary at Iowa’s Cash position and leads the Hawkeyes with three interceptions this season.

Going back to the Wisconsin game, another play came to mind for Ferentz as he talked about his standout safety. After picking off Wisconsin’s Braedyn Locke late in the fourth quarter, Castro dropped to the ground rather than going for a pick-six.

“A selfish guy would have tried to score or whatever,” Ferentz said. “But he had that wherewithal to hit the ground, game over, we're going home. Start the bus and here we go. I think it says a lot about him.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com