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Funeral arrangements set for Palo Verde coach

Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 | 9:19 p.m.

High school football section

Palo Verde coach Dave Castro remembered for his tough love

Funeral arrangements are set for Palo Verde High assistant football coach Dave Castro.

A viewing will be from 2 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday at Christ the King Catholic Community on Torrey Pines Drive and Tropicana Avenue. A funeral mass will follow at 5 p.m.

Castro will be buried at 10 a.m. Thursday at Davis Funeral Home on Patrick and Eastern Avenues.

Castro, 54, was found dead early Saturday morning at his Green Valley area home hours after the Panthers beat Arbor View. The cause of death wasn't immediately determined.

Castro, who was the defensive coordinator for Palo Verde's 2006 and 2008 Sunset Regional title teams, had coached in Las Vegas for more than 20 years. He was Eldorado's head coach for two years in the early 2000s and had worked as an assistant at Chaparral, Bonanza, Valley, Clark, Green Valley and Durango.

He employed a tough-love coaching philosophy — one that was popular with the athletes he coached.

“Dave had that rough edge about him, but he also had the biggest heart,” Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost said. “The kids loved playing hard for him. He had a soft spot in his heart for all kids.”

Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com.

Discussion: 1 comment so far…

By VegasVegas

10/21/09 at 1:38 p.m.

Suggest removal

This has been a strange sequence of events, we've been hit with this tragic story but there's no mention on the cause of death. Suicide? Overdose? Domestic argument? Home invasion?

We seem to have skipped the actual story and went straight to the memorial part. I'm in no way dishonoring this wonderful individual, I'd just like the full story if you're going to report it.

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