Basketball is a game of organized chaos, a sport full of constant action and endless responsibility with electrifying highlights and confounding lowlights. All of this now resides on the shoulders of the man seeking to bring another women’s basketball championship to San Antonio College — Head Coach Abel Castillo.
“I love sports,” Castillo said. “I’ve played throughout my life, especially my childhood. I wasn’t always the tallest or most athletic, but I played with heart and ambition.”
Castillo started coaching his children as an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball coach and trainer. After taking a break from coaching, he returned in 2020 as an assistant coach at San Antonio College after his daughter enrolled to further her basketball development.
As an assistant, Castillo helped the team win multiple Texas Collegiate Athletic Conference championships. In March, SAC’s women’s and men’s teams both became TCAC champions for the 2023-2024 season.
After SAC’s previous women’s head coach stepped down at the end of the 2023-2024 season, Castillo stepped up to serve as interim head coach. He applied for and earned the position as head coach in October.
“It was a long, crucial process, but I ended up beating out several good D-3 coaches, some high school coaches and some AAU coaches. I felt like destiny led me to this position.”
Castillo said he teaches his players to play for each other.
“A lot of what I teach is knowledge of the game,” Castillo said. “Basketball is 10% physical and 90% mental. It’s knowing how to deal with pressure and adversity, knowing how to handle failure and mistakes and using that as motivation for players’ growth.”
Castillo said he puts a lot of emphasis on academics and discipline.
“First and foremost, I focus on education. If they are disciplined to work hard there, it can transition on the court,” Castillo said.
In Castillo’s first semester as head coach, the Lady Armadillos went 4-2 in conference play, closing out the first half of the 2024-2025 season Nov. 6 with a dominant 99-29 victory over the University of the Incarnate Word Cardinals. SAC sits in third place going into the second half of the season, which resumes in January.
Castillo’s goal is to bring another TCAC championship to SAC this spring, and he said his players will be ready to build on their successes in 2025.
“The most important part is to stay disciplined,” he said.
