Late friend Jarvin Velasquez has been constantly on Brayan Castellon‘s mind in the month since his life was tragically taken by gun violence Aug. 9.
Castellon, Edna Karr’s placekicker, said he had cried as recently as Thursday night.
And when he took the Caesars Superdome field late Friday with the Cougars trailing by three in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, he said he thought of two things: the opportunity to use his talent to honor Jarvin, and the opportunity to rise to an occasion for his teammates.
The 5-foot-4, 145-pound junior, in just his second season playing football, stepped up and drilled the 37-yard field goal to take American Heritage (Plantation, Fla.) to overtime where Edna Karr would seal the 24-17 victory in the high-profile matchup.
“This was all for him,” Castellon said. “I did this for him. And I was really excited to do the kickoffs and all that. And this is for my brothers over there, and I’m glad to do everything I did with them.”
Coach Brice Brown admitted the Cougars might not have often even attempted that kick in recent years, but rather have taken another throw at the end zone for a potential walk-off win.
But, even in the wake of tragedy, Castellon has been consistent in his work and in his performance to earn the confidence of the staff in a critical moment.
“They were screaming at me in the headset,” Brown laughed about the decision. “I’m usually not the one to kick field goals, but Brayan has been doing a great job of kicking at practice. And the special teams coordinator, he’d been on me about giving him an opportunity, and that was a hell of an opportunity he got right there. So I’m just so proud of him.
“He’s gone through a lot. His best friend got killed, and he’s just been still coming to practice every day and keeps trying to fight through adversity. But it just tells you it doesn’t matter what race or color you are. Everybody has to fight through something.”
Castellon, also a soccer player for Edna Karr’s soccer team, went out for football as a sophomore, initially eying a potential running back spot before landing his specialist role.
And he’s locked in since then on perfecting that craft, earning a “Mr. Consistent” nickname for his approach and his reliable extra-point rate — and now, too, his clutch field-goal kicking.
“Being prepared is just being concentrated, concentrated on everything basically,” Castellon said. “You just want to improve and get better at everything you do.”
