Harlingen native sisters join forces again at UTRGV

Sisters Erica and Arnelle Gonzalez both help to make up UTRGV women’s soccer tough defensive front. Last year was the first year the two sisters weren’t playing together as Erica was a goalkeeper in the first-ever UTPA women’s soccer team and Arnelle, a defender, was still in Harlingen South High School.

Learning that Arnelle, who was her team’s MVP and earned second team District 32-6A accolades her senior year in high school, would join her in the UTRGV women’s soccer team was good news for Erica.

“When I found out my sister made the team I was very excited,” Erica said. “I’ve been playing with her since I was in third grade, so it’s unusual not having her on my team.” Having played together for so long has helped the sisters have a thorough understanding of how one another plays, and how to best work with each other out on the field.

“We give each other a certain look and we know what we’re gonna do,” Arnelle said. “I guess that’s sort of a sister relationship.”

UTRGV Men’s Soccer junior goalkeeper Leo Castillo didn’t really choose his position… his position chose him.
“My brother (Eduardo) used to always put me in between two trees back at home and start shooting free kicks on me,” he said.

A few years later, when Leo was 12, the goalkeeper of his club soccer team in Katy, TX got injured, and it was also Eduardo who decided that his little brother would take the goalkeeper spot for the rest of the game.
“In the huddle at halftime, the coach asked who wanted to be in goal and my brother raised his hand and pointed at me and said, ‘he’s going in goal’,” Castillo said.

“I looked at him and I was like, ‘well, I guess.’ “So I went in goal, played the second half. It went pretty well, so I went from there.” Although Castillo may not have been happy with his brother at the time, playing goal allowed him to play college soccer.

“When I played in Houston Dynamo (U- 18 Developmental Academy) it was pretty exciting to see all the academy players, the ones above me, going into college soccer and coming back and having great experiences playing around the nation,” he said. “It was exciting to know I was going to get to do that as well.”

Castillo started for two years at Tyler Junior College, where he posted seven shutouts that led his team to the 2014 NJCAA National Championship.
“Winning a national championship in college soccer is a really good experience,” he said.

“We had lost the first final my first year and my second year we got to come out again.
“At the moment you don’t know how to feel or what to do, you are just so excited… you just won a National Championship.”

After finishing up in Tyler, where he also earned NJCAA Second Team All-American, NSCAAA First Team All-South Region and First Team All-Conference accolades as a freshman after recording 11 shutouts with a 0.81 goals against average, Castillo was attracted to UTRGV due in part to its strong soccer culture.

“Coach Paul Leese and Coach Donovan Dowling gave me a call and talked to me about the school,” Castillo said. “I think what attracted me the most was the coaches and the atmosphere here at UTRGV.
“Coach Dowling was also a really, really good goalkeeper, and I think Coach Leese is one of the smartest coaches in college soccer.”

Castillo still has a year and a half left at UTRGV, after which he hopes to play professionally. When he’s done playing soccer, he wants to teach it.
“My goal is to have a goalkeeper academy and to teach kids from a young age how to play in goal,” he said.