Around
Owen County, the name Delmas Castle is synonymous with success
on the basketball court.
Castle ended his legendary tenure as coach of the Owen County
High School girls basketball last year, retiring after 27 years.
At the time of his retirement Castle was 17th all time in coaching
wins in girls basketball in Kentucky with a record of 433-274.
Castle’s legacy is well known in Owen County.
Now, the former coach has received state-wide attention.
During the 2006 Houchens/KHSAA Girls State Basketball Tournament
on March 25 in Bowling Green, Castle was inducted into the Kentucky
Association of Basketball Coaches Court of Honor.
“I was a little bit shocked, but tickled to death,”
Castle said. “It’s a real honor.”
Castle, who has 433 of the program’s 478 victories, finished
his career with a 61.2 percent winning percentage.
His long-time assistant Bob Osborne took over this season.
Castle was raised in Johnson County and moved to Owen County after
high school with his wife Nancy, but they didn’t expect
to be around too long.
“We thought we’d stay a year, then go back to Johnson
County,” Castle said. “We fell in love with the town.
We really liked the community. I never want to go any place else.”
At the time the Castles moved to Owen County, the high school
didn’t have a girls basketball team, and Castle never dreamed
he would end up coaching girls.
He began his Owen County coaching career by leading the elementary
school for three years, then coached the boys freshman team for
one year and the boys junior varsity for two years.
During that span, the girls program started up, going 32-53 in
its first six years.
In 1978 Castle was offered the position of girls basketball coach.
“I thought a long time before I took it,” he said.
If he had any doubts about taking over the girls program, it never
showed, as he guided the squad to a program best 13-6 record during
the 1978-79 season.
After suffering through three straight losing seasons and four
losing seasons in five years, the Lady Rebels began to soar in
the late ’80s and early ’90s, going 18-10 in 1987-88,
22-4 in 1988-89, 19-8 in 1989-90 and 24-6 in 1990-91.
Castle continued to build the program’s success and over
his final eight seasons finished with a record of 174-61, including
six seasons of 20 or more victories.
“I didn’t know when I took the job I was going to
stay for 27 years, but after I took it, I never wanted to go anywhere
else,” Castle said.
“You have to have a passion for it,” he said of being
a successful coach. “It has to mean something to you. Basketball
is your life for about five to six months a year.”
Castle said one of the things he’s most proud of is that
he won all 433 games at the same school.
“You look at the list and a lot of people moved to other
schools when the talent was gone, or went to bigger schools,”
Castle said of the all-time coaching leaders. “You take
out those people and there’s not a lot of names left.”
Castle never thought of leaving Owen County, even when the talent
pool was sometimes fairly shallow.
“You take the talent you have and try to make the most of
it,” Castle said.
Castle managed to win all those games with perennial powerhouses
Scott County and Shelby County always standing in the way.
Scott County, which was the only Kentucky team to challenge state
champion Lexington Catholic this season, was moved out of the
region before the start of this year.
Even though Owen County never won the region, basketball experts
around Kentucky still noticed the success of the Lady Rebels’
program.
“We never got to go to state, so statewide you’re
not as known,” Castle said of being inducted into the Court
of Honor. “It’s really an honor and partly humbling.”
Through 27 years of coaching the girls team and 33 years of teaching,
Castle said the best part has been when students come back to
see him, or when he sees that former students or players have
become successful in life.
“It makes you feel good,” he said. “You want
to feel like you had a little bit to do with that.”
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