LOCAL

BHS junior earns spot on USA Basketball U17 team, headed to World Cup in Spain

Mike Tupa
Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise
David Castillo has been Bartlesville High's boys basketball leading scorer and playmaker the past two seasons.

In a few days when David Castillo boards a jet bound for Europe, he’ll need only one airplane seat.

But, in a very real sense, the entire community of Bartlesville will be traveling in spirit with the Bartlesville High basketball stalwart.

Castillo will be traveling with a select group — with n emphasis on the word “select” — of athletes that have been named to the USA Basketball U17 men’s team to represent the US at the 2022 FIBA World Cup tournament in Spain.

This is the second year Castillo has been chosen for this honor. In 2021, the 6-foot-1 point guard played on the Team USA U16 men’s team that won the FIBA Copa de Americas gold medal.

Castillo received an invitation last spring to try out for the U17 squad. He was one of 35 players that started the tryouts several days ago. The list was cut on Monday to 18 players and, on Wednesday,

Castillo was named to the final 12-man roster, which represents 10 different states. He is the only Oklahoman on the squad and one of four players who played together on last year’s U16 championship team.

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Bartlesville High School basketball player David Castillo, left, displays his USA Basketball 16U gold medal to the crowd at Custer Stadium during a football halftime last September. Bartlesville head basketball coach Clent Stewart , center, and dad Nate Castillo look on.

Castillo’s achievement is not just the sum of his talent, skill, desire, determination and hard work — but also is a product of a caring and supportive city.

“We appreciate all the community has done,” Castillo’s father Nate Castillo said. My wife Hilda and I both recognize it,”

He offered profound gratitude to Bartlesville Public Schools Superintendent Chuck McCauley and for Bartlesville High Athletic/Activities Director Thad Dilbeck for their dispensations allowing David broad access to the gym for him to work on his shooting, to the weightroom and to the track.

“Those things are necessary and we’re very thankful,” Castillo said. “If he’s a piano player, a kid needs a piano to practice on. He needs all those assets available to him to accomplish his dream. … It requires all those folks in the community to nourish the way he can develop. … The community has been very supportive and we don’t want to lose sight of that in the pursuit of his dream.”

David Castillo is done his part in that quest to become a special hardwood talent.

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Bartlesville High School's David Castillo, right, and a Ponca City High School defender collide during fierce action in Castillo's freshman season (2020-21).

“He’s just very blessed,” Nate Castillo said. “Very few kids get these opportunities. The face he’s gotten this opportunity to represent the United States twice gives up such an incredible, uplifting and blessed feeling. We’re very thankful.”

Playing on a US team is very important to the Castillo family, which enjoy a rich military tradition.

Nate has served as a reservist and Castillo’s oldest sister Letricia is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, Nate said.

“We’ve all served our country in one way or another. We feel very honored as soldiers to serve our country and David is do it his way through basketball.”

Last summer, Castillo came off the pine to score 14 points and help lift the US to victory in the FIBA U16 America’s Cup championship game.

Other members of that team that are joining Castillo on this year’s U17 squad include Ron Holland (6-7, Texas), Ian Jackson (6-6, New York) and Jeremy Fears (6-0, Illinois).

During his freshman season (2020-21), David Castillo, represented by the No. 10, turned in one of the great all-time scoring nights for Bartlesville High's varsity boys basketball team when he netted 43 points in a win.

The 2022 U17 team is slightly taller on the upper end than the 2021 U16 squad.

The 2022 list is led in verticality by 7-foot-1 Denis Evans III of Riverside, Calif. There are six players on the roster listed at 6-foot-6 or taller, compared to the four for the 2021 crew.

The same coaching staff from the U16 team is leading the U17 assemblage — Sharman White (Pace Academy, Georgia) as head coach, Eric Flannery (St. Edward High, Ohio) as one assistant, and Steve Turner (Gonzaga College High, DC) as the other.

U17 World Cup play is set to begin on July 2 in Malaga, Spain.

The USA team will open up against Lebanon and play Slovenia and Mali in other round-robin games.

The championship tourney action opens July 6.

The opportunity to see the world is another major benefit for David, Nate said.

“I’m excited that he gets to be enriched by this cultural diversity, to meet new kids from those new areas but also the food, the beaches and those aspects are things that help him grow, as well.”