ONALASKA — Isaac Castellano was kind of letting everything settle in as he arrived to his classroom at Onalaska High School on Friday morning.
Thursday was a whirlwind as he found out that he was chosen to be presented to the school board on May 25 as his school’s next boys basketball coach.
A three-year assistant coach for the Hilltoppers, Castellano hoped that day would come eventually, but the process was sped up when Craig Kowal stepped down last month after 18 years.
“Craig Kowal and I have had conversations the last two months of what this might look like,” Castellano said of taking over the program one day. “Then he resigned, and everything went pretty quick.
“I’ve been drinking through a firehose of information.”
Kowal’s resignation — his Onalaska teams were 347-102 with eight MVC championships, 13 WIAA regional titles, three sectional championships and one Division 2 state title — created an opening much sooner that Castellano expected.
“He would tell me that, ‘Eventually, I am going to retire,'” said Castellano, who played at Auburndale High School and UW-River Falls. “I thought I’d have a few more years to get my head around it.”
Castellano said he has spent most of his time with the Hilltoppers working with the team’s offensive approach.
He started out as a volunteer hand and worked primarily with the scout team and scouting upcoming opponents.
Castellano was added to the staff when a proper assistant job opened up, and he took a larger role with the offense. He said Kowal’s encouragement of fresh ideas and the allowed freedom to tweak what the team was doing were invaluable.
Castellano takes over the program at both an exciting and intimidating time.
The pressure to win will be on immediately with returning players like Brendan Chenault, Tyler Kowal, Gavin McRoberts and Gabe Whited.
Onalaska was 21-4 last season, won the MVC and received considerable contribution from those players while doing so.
“Coach Kowal has left a great foundation,” Castellano said. “I’m not trying to build from the ground up. This is a championship-caliber team.”
Castellano said he is excited to get more involved with what the Hilltoppers do defensively because he said that was his strength as a player.
“I want to see us be more chaotic offense and defensive styles and to be more unpredictable with what we do,” he said. “We have a lot of great athletes returning and can cause that chaos.”
