Veteran women's hoops coach Fred Castro joins Bulldog staff as Associate Head Coach
A veteran coach in women’s basketball is joining Sam Purcell’s staff.
As first reported by Maroon and White Daily two weeks ago, MSU has hired former Eastern Michigan coach Fred Castro to be the Bulldogs’ Associate Head Coach. Castro brings 20 years of experience in the women’s game on different levels and from different positions to his time in Starkville.
For the last eight seasons, Castro was the head coach of EMU. During his time as head coach, Castro’s teams had one winning season at 16-15 in 2019-20 and he was let go by the school this season.
Prior to his time at EMU, Castro was an accomplished assistant. He worked his way up the ladder from being a manager at his Alma Mater Oklahoma to becoming a volunteer assistant in Norman back in 2004-07. Castro started as an assistant at Rogers State and then Mercer before grabbing a spot as a scout for the Minnesota Lynx in 2009-10.
After coaching at Albany and Tulsa for a couple of seasons, Castro made a stop at Washington coaching with Mike Neighbors. Running the offense as Neighbors coordinator, Castro was instrumental in making the Huskies one of college basketball’s best offenses.
During his tenure at Seattle, he helped get the team to two NCAA Tournament appearances in three years including a Final Four in 2016. He also was instrumental in helping Kelsey Plum become the leading scorer in the country.
Castro’s experience and long relationship with Purcell makes for a perfect fit this season as the coach will help the Bulldog offense develop its identity and evaluating and recruiting talent has been a priority during his career.
MSU is replacing the three assistant coaches that Purcell had one staff his first two seasons as the Bulldogs and coach Murriel Page moved in a different direction, Corry Irvin took the head coaching post at Chicago State and Gabe Lazo was hired on Tuesday as an assistant coach at Tennessee.
Purcell replaced Irvin with former Georgia Southern head coach Anita Howard and the Bulldogs are down to filling Lazo’s spot.
