Liberty’s Castille hurdling past knee injuries

Rodney Castille was an effective receiver for the Liberty Tech football team last season as the Crusaders went undefeated until the Class 3A semifinals.

Castille and a number of other Crusader athletes are using track to remain competitive while keeping up their physical condition during the offseason.

“Me, Corey [Newble], Alec [Long] and a bunch of us came out for track for something to do and to keep us in conditioning instead of just staying in the weight room all offseason.”

Castille started the season throwing the discus and competing in the 4X100 and 4X400 relay events. But he added another event to his list that may be his best – hurdles.

“I had surgery in January to repair a meniscus in my knee, and I couldn’t walk on it for two or three weeks,” Castille said. “Then after a couple of months, I was back to 100 percent, but I had to convince myself my leg wasn’t hurt anymore.

“The discus wasn’t doing anything to help that.”

Liberty’s track program had a total of four hurdles to practice on until last week when a shipment of a few more came in, but one day at practice, Castille jumped over one to see if he could do it.

“I did do it and figured out it was something I could do,” Castille said. “So I talked to Coach [Robert] McCaslin about doing it.”

McCaslin agreed and now has high hopes for Castille in the hurdles as the state track meet at Spring Fling approaches and section meets are coming up before then.

But it took practice for Castille to get to this point even though he already had the physical ability.

“We had four hurdles before this week, and I would just jump those four and come back and jump them again,” Castille said. “It’s about getting the rhythm down – step, step, jump, step, step, jump – and having the endurance to be able to do it for 110 or 300 meters.”

Castille apparently has the necessary endurance. He hasn’t finished worse than second place in a race yet.

And he and the rest of the Liberty football players feel like they’re more physically ready for spring football because of the work they’ve put in during track.

“And hopefully I’m ready to compete for championships in hurdling before then,” Castille said.

Brandon Shields, 425-9751