The Mind in the Middle

Time management and determination have helped David Castillo excel on  the football field and in the classroom

By Frank J. Matthews

Adults regularly ask children what they want to be when they grow up. The responses are often interesting. But David Castillo knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life, even at a young age. And now he’s well on his way to accomplishing his childhood dream.

“I’ve known since I was five years old that I wanted to become a doctor,” says Castillo, a center for the Florida State University Seminoles’ football team and Diverse’s Arthur Ashe Jr. Male Sports Scholar of the Year. He has long excelled at both academics and athletics. The senior earned a bachelor’s in exercise science in the fall of 2004 and is currently working on a second degree in dietetics. In addition, he’s taken the MCAT, the medical school entrance exam, and is considering medical school in the fall. 

It didn’t take much research for FSU’s coaches and staff to realize that Castillo was the quintessential student-athlete.

“David came with two goals, first to get into medical school and second to be a football player,” says Amy Lord, associate director of athletic academic support at FSU.

Castillo credits his parents for putting his priorities in perspective.

“My mother never let me go play with my friends or go to practice unless my school work was done first,” he says. “My dad was an engineer and has a master’s degree from the University of Florida, so he would say if my grades started to slip, the sports would have to go.”

His parents’ guidance and influence have clearly paid off. ESPN The Magazine selected him as a Second-Team Academic All American this season. He also won the 2005 Jim Tatum Award, given annually to the best football student-athlete in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), making him only the second FSU player to receive the honor. He is also the second Seminole football player ever to pursue a pre-med curriculum. Castillo has been on the ACC Honor Roll all five years at Florida State and won a postgraduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation, which will go towards medical school “depending on what happens in the NFL Draft in April,” he says. He also won the FSU 2005 Golden Torch Award for having the highest GPA on the football team.