Nate Castillo, a former college coach at Mt. Mercy University, has moved to City High school to coach the JV1 girls team, an interesting move considering he grew up across the river as a West High athlete.

The decision on coaching junior varsity soccer for City came down to City’s system and style of coaching for Castillo, as he admired coach Michael Prunty’s method as varsity coach.

“I like [Michael Prunty’s] style of play and I have seen him do great things with teams,” Castillo said.

Castillo grew up in Iowa City where he attended Roosevelt Elementary, North West Junior High, and West High School. After high school he studied management at the University of Iowa.

Castillo has been playing soccer for as long as he can remember. His passion continued at West High where he played all four years of his high school career. Before his high school soccer career, he played with the soccer club team ISC from age 10 until high school. Since graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in management, the West High coaching staff have asked Castillo to help out at West, but Castillo has continued to decline. While he was attending Iowa, Castillo also helped out the women’s coaching staff of Mount Mercy University.

In the off season, the City girls have had optional open gym practices and Pro-Fit training to prepare.

“The girls that show up work really hard and get better every time. I think it will definitely help with our fitness levels,” Lizzy Ward ‘16 said.

Castillo has been at many of these events and expressed lots of excitement for the season.

“I am excited about this upcoming season. From what I hear this could be the year of the Little Hawk. I know City beat West in a handful of sports so why not beat them in soccer too!” Castillo answered when he was asked how he felt about the upcoming season with the City girls.

Castillo hopes that the hard work last season and throughout the offseason will lead to a successful season.

“I am most excited to see how far we can go as a program this year. I know we have a great group of girls and they all seem very willing to learn and give it their all.” said Castillo.

Castillo was recently asked how he felt about now wearing red and white, the colors of his childhood rivals.

“I am still a little uneasy about the red and white thing. I do not own many red and white shirts. In fact, until [coach] Michael [Prunty] gave me a City shirt last week, I did not own a single City High piece of clothing. Growing up on the west side, I have a lot of green and gold.” He said in response.

The JV1 girls put on their own red and white for their first game on April 7th at 6:00 on the City High turf.