Starting every day with a morning run, the player responsible for helping Bishop Amat High School win the league title in 2018 preps to continue being an all-star athlete for the Cerritos College baseball team.
Richard Castro was born on Jan. 17, 2000, and has been playing baseball for all this life since the age of four. He comes from a family of athletes with his father being a baseball player, his mother a volleyball and basketball player and two of his four brothers playing baseball as well.
His father introduced him to the sport and since then has been teaching him everything he knows about baseball and always pushes him to play to the best of his abilities. Castro looks up to his dad and thanks him for making him the person he is today.
He played baseball for the Cal State San Bernandino team, appearing in 41 games and making a total of eight home runs. He helped his team going against Cal State Los Angeles with a 3-4 run in’s.
He also played for Bishop Amat High School, playing both football and baseball with the latter was that he managed to help the team get to and win the league title.
He prepares for every game/day by waking up early and running in the morning, while also getting to school early and training before playing a game or starting practice with the team.
He left San Bernardino last year and came to Cerritos right after his departure. As of right now, he has been playing baseball for the Cerritos baseball team appearing in 15 of their games.
“At first it was Coach Rodney Davis that got my attention and brought me here but due to a situation he was no longer able to coach here, but he left a great staff Vic Buttler, Mike Shern, Coco Crisp and so on,” Castro said.
When trying to do his absolute best in a game, Castro always thinks of his family that inspires him to give back to his parents for everything that they did for him growing up. To try and be successful so he could give back and show appreciation toward them.
While thinking of the future games, Castro always managed to get as many home runs as he could and being more clutch in certain situations of a game.
“Castro came to us in July of 2019, he’s a bounce back from Cal State San Bernandino, so I’ve known him for five to seven months now,” Coach Vic Buttler said.
He continues on saying, “Richard was recruited by our strength and conditioning coach for and the skill set that he brings to the Falcons program along with his mindset and leadership.”
Coach Buttler continues on saying, “Richard is one of our captains on the team, he does a good job of keeping the good energy going, keeping the players going, he works hard every day, he goes about his business and professional stuff. He’s a great kid.”
Not only does he have respect from his coach but also from his teammates. More specifically Alex Bueno, an electrical engineering major, No.3 on the team and a good friend of Castro.
Bueno met Castro at the beginning of the season during tryouts and since then they’ve been playing for the team together.
“Yeah, He’s a very good team guy he brings great energy in the bench, in the dugout, a very hard worker.” Bueno continues on, “Just his ability to do everything well. There’s not one thing that he’s bad at, he’s good at everything.”
Castro is not worried about other future games because he plays his absolute best.
