Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Castro ‘supreme’ for Tigers
The Prep Rally: Best in the West series will highlight the all-time best players in western Arkansas as selected by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Mike Devaney knew he had lost a good soccer player when Jose “Lalo” Castro decided to leave Bentonville and go to Dallas in 2016.
The Tigers’ coach received a better one in return — possibly the best he ever had at the school — when Castro returned to the Tigers a year later for his senior season.
“No short-changing him; we’ve had some terrific players come through here,” Devaney said. “But he is, without question, the most talented player I’ve coached on the high school level. Technically, he was just supreme — absolutely supreme.
“It was wonderful to watch, just in the training and the way he went about his business in terms of his technical ability. He was quick and had this low center of gravity so he could ride tackles. He was a terrific finisher. He could find a pass. He had everything — from the technical ability on the ball to being able to bring his teammates into the game.”
Castro was a sophomore on the 2015 Bentonville team that celebrated its second consecutive Class 7A state championship when the Tigers earned a 1-0 victory over Fort Smith Northside in the title game. His talents were recognized at that point as he was named the 7A-West Conference’s newcomer of the year, but he wasn’t around when Bentonville won the Class 7A state title again the following season.
He had made the decision to focus on club soccer and moved to Dallas in hopes of getting more attention from college coaches. He then joined an FC Dallas team that won the 2016 U.S. Soccer Development Academy Under-16 national championship.
“Here in Arkansas, it’s not that big of a sport where colleges will come watch you play,” Castro said in a 2019 story. “Playing club, moving around and playing in different showcases definitely helped me out.”
The move did pay off for Castro, who later signed a national letter of intent to play college soccer at Oral Roberts. But he could still play a season of high school soccer during his senior year, so he then chose to come back to Bentonville, to the delight of Devaney and his Tiger teammates.
“He’s a really nice guy and stuff,” said Zach Fields, who had been a teammate of Castro’s since they were in the seventh grade. “But if you get him on a soccer field, he could run circles around everybody. If I could get him the ball, he could take care of the rest.
“To watch him was an incredible feeling. Sometimes you get tired on defense, so I would just pass the ball to Lalo. He could take the ball and go wherever he wanted to go.”
Castro did a little bit of everything to help the Tigers reach the Class 7A state tournament. He finished with eight goals and 14 assists that season, and he became the first Bentonville boys player to be named the Arkansas soccer player of the year by Gatorade.
And he did so while receiving a lot of attention anywhere he was on the field. Fields realized teams would designate one player to be around Castro at all times, and it was not a surprise to see opposing teams double- or triple-team his teammate.
“When he came back for his senior season, people knew who he was,” Devaney said. “He took some real physical abuse out there, and rightfully so. Still, he was tremendously effective, even in games when other teams were geared up to stop him.”
Attempts to reach Castro for this story were unsuccessful.