Perserverance, discipline and one hell of a 40-yard sprint. All this is what turned Juan Carlos Castillo Nájera into such a successful Mexican football player.
“Football always caught my attention, but I never knew anyone who could give me any information about the sport. I saw it on TV and I went every year to visit my family in Denver where I played amateur football with my cousins, but that was about it.”
When he was only fifteen, Juan Carlos Castillo Nájera had his first official contact with football.
“I started out as a defensive nose tackle, until my coach realized I was pretty fast. He decided to try me out as a linebacker.”
One day during practice, he helped out the offense and played as a fullback.
“First play, I get the ball. Touchdown.”
That’s when Juan started playing for both offense and defense as a fullback and a linebacker.
“Football gave me the best friends I could ever ask for. It brought me closer to my family. It gave me the opportunity to leave my home town. To represent the country and learn about teamwork.”
“It builds the strongest character you could ever ask for.”
Juan Carlos, nicknamed “Conan” and “Goliath” due to his impressive build, was a national champion with the UNAM’s Pumas.
He also played in three world championships (Detroit, Austria and Ohio) as part of the Mexican team, between 2005 to 2015. That’s TEN YEARS of some serious football, people!
He was offered a scholarship to the Michigan State University in 2006 after the NFL Global Junior Championship that same year.
Two were the coaches who had the biggest influence on his life as a football player: César García, “El Panda”, who taught him the basis of football, and Raúl Rivera, from whom he adopted a unique sense of leadership and life philosophy.
The Pumas are the team he carries around wherever he goes. Literally.
When you become a team member, you get branded with a P for Puma, the highest honor and greatest rite of passage of the team.
Afterward, he decided to give back.
Football had given him so much and changed his life for the better, so he could only try to do the same for others.
He started coaching in Cuernavaca for Leones de Cuernavaca, Linces, and Legionarios Uninter. Later, he moved on to college football league teams, coaching at Pumas CU and at Borregos Guadalajara.
He has worked as an offensive coordinator, runningbacks’ coach and Head Coach for these teams.
“The key to success in football is perseverance and discipline. You have to love it to live it. That’s how you chase your goals and accomplish your dreams.”
Hard work and an oriented sense of what you want out of life is what led Conan, Goliath, Juan Carlos, or #44 into the path of success.
Keep rolling ’til you find something you love…
