Most holiday basketball stories involve sugar-coated tales of a player overcoming an injury or a team winning a game via a miraculous comeback: this is the story of a coach who tried to help 1 of his players and ended up paying a heavy price. Stony Brook has been playing basketball for 60 years but did not begin to first taste success until Coach Joe Castiglie showed up in 1984. He won an average of 20 games/year during his 7 seasons in New York, including an ECAC title in 1990. 1 year he had a player who could not afford to go home for Christmas break so Castiglie loaned his player $118 in the form of a plane ticket to visit his family. After the NCAA found out it suspended the coach…FOR 3 YEARS!!! HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to talk to Coach Castiglie about his success on the sideline and the state of the sport.
You played for Coach Gus Alfieri at St. Anthony’s High School: how intense was Alfieri, and what was the most important thing you ever learned from him? He was and is a positive basketball force. He was coached by Joe Lapchick/Lou Carnesecca at St. John’s, and I was lucky that he passed along a good deal of his pedigree to me. He totally influenced me with his love of defense as the most important part of basketball. He wanted to shorten the game because we were so ferocious on defense: I preferred to play a transition game.
As a 5’8” PG you helped lead St. Anthony’s to a New York state title in 1974: did you consider your size to be an advantage or a disadvantage, and what did it mean to you to win the title? It is by far a disadvantage on the court, but it caused me to work exceptionally hard so I generated a work ethic that served me well in life. It was exciting to win the title because we had to beat some good teams along the way. I certainly learned the value of hard work and was a spark for every team I played on. I was a good shooter but there was no 3-PT line at that time.
In 1984 you were named part-time head coach of Stony Brook at age 26: why was it just a part-time job, and did you feel ready to lead your alma mater at such a young age? That was the nature of the position. Oddly enough I felt ready because I was very ambitious and had learned all of the fundamentals from Coach Alfieri. I got to work at summer camps with legends like Dean Smith/Rollie Massimino, which also taught me a lot. I set myself up to be a college basketball coach predicated on defense/hard work.
In 1990 your team went 24-5 and won the ECAC title: where does that team rank among the best you ever had, and how big a deal was it to win the title? It was a marvelous experience. I had an interesting combination of young/old players and we came together during a long journey. We made key plays at key times to win the title in OT, and cutting down the nets was great.
In 1991 you resigned after receiving a 3-year suspension for loaning guard Stan Martin $118 in the form of a plane ticket to visit his family in Buffalo over Christmas break and then allegedly lying about it to an NCAA investigator: what is your biggest regret about the situation, and do you think the penalty was unfair? The bottom line is that I made a $100 mistake but I do not think it was the violation that got me in trouble. I hate saying that I lied but that is the unethical conduct that the NCAA accused me of. They effectively ended my coaching career over what I think deserved a smaller penalty. I did not hire a lawyer: I just went in there and tried to tell the truth, but it backfired on me because I ended up proving the NCAA’s case for them. It taught me a great lesson as it cost me my dream, but quite frankly I influenced a great number of people during my second career as a teacher.
After getting out of basketball you became a chemistry teacher: how did you like teaching, and will you ever return to the college sideline? I absolutely loved being in the classroom because I loved interacting with the students. I was an assistant coach at CW Post but was exhausted by the end of the year due to the long commute. I would love nothing better than to get back into college basketball. I love the game so I am not coaching for fame/fortune. Hopefully someone someday will give me another chance to return to the coaching profession and in some small way again contribute to the discussion.
What do you think about the current state of college athletics, and do you think it has gotten better or worse over the past 2 decades? You might be surprised but I am disillusioned with college athletics. I loved being in the collegiate environment but I prefer watching NBA basketball due to the purity in that. I think that college athletics have become completely and utterly dominated by money, which is getting away from the core of the past. It creates a motivation for coaches to do things they might not ordinarily do. Back in the day people wanted to become famous but not a lot became rich. John Wooden did not become a millionaire by coaching at UCLA: he was a teacher first. Today’s coaches are salesmen, which is why they get hired. Today’s college athletes make sacrifices above and beyond their classmates, and even with a scholarship your time is consumed. When I was coaching at Stony Brook I was invited to attend many kinds of social functions with my wife. If I was not especially in the mood to interact and people asked what I did for a living, I would simply reply that I taught chemistry…and the universal response was to regard me with some sort of disdain/pity. However, if I wanted to hold court I would say that I was a college basketball head coach: this would make me the most popular person in the room! I always thought this spoke volumes as to the problems within our educational system, since I knew that my job as a teacher was much more important than my job as a coach. Coaches used to be regarded as teachers but this is no longer the case: until our society recognizes this as a priority the problems will continue to persist.
You remain the 2nd-winningest coach in school history (trailing only Steve Pikiell): what made you such a great coach? I was blessed with having hard-working young men who listened/executed. I am very good at motivating players but I wanted them to serve a higher cause. I taught them that excuses were weak: “There are 2 kinds of people in the world: those who get things done and those who do not.”
Your daughter Ali played lacrosse at Binghamton, where she was 1 of the best scorers on the team: how proud are you of her success, and does she credit at least some of her success to genetics? She was a 3-sport athlete in high school and worked very hard so I think that she would say yes. My younger son grew into quite a good athlete himself. My kids were surrounded by sports all of their lives so they certainly have an understanding of what it takes to succeed.
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I hope that my career is not over yet! I was always concerned for my players: I wanted them to graduate and become good family men. My greatest success is how their lives turned out, which I am very grateful for.
