Winnipeg triumphs over bust for kicker Castillo

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This article was published 26/02/2024 (908 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For a team that prides itself on continuity, it’s only fitting that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were able to offer Sergio Castillo something he’s never experienced before in his football career: a chance to stay put.

Castillo has been the ultimate journeyman over his decade playing the game professionally. Never has he played for the same team in consecutive years, always moving from one spot to another, sometimes from one league to another.

So when the 33-year-old kicker had the chance to re-sign with the Bombers, inking a one-year deal for the 2024 season, the chance to stick around the same place, with much of the same team, was just too good to pass up.

“The reason why I hadn’t been on a team two years in a row, a lot had to do with injuries, not performing well, COVID, or going for an opportunity in the XFL and then going to the NFL,” Castillo said over Zoom Monday. “The past two years have probably been the first time in my career where I can actually be with a team two years in a row. Honestly, I hadn’t thought much about (going somewhere else). It was just Winnipeg the whole time and glad that we came to where we are now.”

When Castillo said it was Winnipeg or bust, he meant it, noting his backup plan was to be a stay-at-home dad, a role he already plays in the off-season while his wife works as a teacher. It took a bit of time to put pen to paper on the new deal, and at points during the negotiations, money was certainly an issue.

After all, with the Bombers shelling out big contracts to running back Brady Oliveira and receiver Dalton Schoen, there wasn’t a lot of money left over. With both sides committed to getting something done, however, it only made sense to find common ground and ink an extension.

“I understood when the season ended Winnipeg had to sign the big guns — Brady, Dalton and those guys. I understood, from the get-go, that it was going to be a little lengthy, that I had to be patient,” Castillo said. “I’ve learned over the years that I have to keep my emotions to the side and not to take everything to heart and understand that everything works at its own timing. And not just in sports, but outside of football, where everything has its timing. The right people, the right circumstances, the right situation has to come up and everything has to mesh.”

While Castillo gets to further deepen his roots in Winnipeg, the Bombers bring some much-needed stability to their kicking game. Castillo is coming off a year in which he set a new single-season franchise record for field goal percentage, connecting on 46 of his 51 attempts for a success rate of 90 per cent.

“More than anything I finally felt where I was in a state of mind where I was at peace. I didn’t feel stressed, tense, like I did before in the previous years,” Castillo said of his 2023 season. “It’s like, why couldn’t I have figured this out when I was 24? I kept asking myself that question last year.”

Castillo joins a Bombers team that has several key pieces from last season and is once again expected to contend for the Grey Cup. The Bombers have been in the last four championship games, winning twice, most recently in 2021 after Castillo went five-for-five on field goals to help edge the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in overtime.

There are few familiar faces that will be missing this season. Right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick signed in Saskatchewan and receiver Rasheed Bailey inked a new deal with Toronto, while defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat has opted to retire. All players Castillo had formed a friendship with over the years and he’s sad to see them move on.

“That’s the thing with football: once football is over, or you part ways, the relationships stay,” Castillo said.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jeffkhamilton