Fourteen soccer alumni made up the core of FC Castro (Castro Football Club), which competed in the German Family Society soccer tournament held in Kent, Ohio, in July. The team was organized by Tom “Chew” O’Brien ’80 and was dedicated to the memory of longtime Brown soccer trainer Joe Castro (pictured), who died last fall.

“We’ve talked a lot about getting together again, and I thought this would be a good way to honor Joe,” O’Brien says. “Everybody who played soccer at Brown loved Joe Castro.” Teammate Dave DePinto ’77 agrees. “For a lot of guys, Brown could be an intimidating place at first. But Joe was genuine, caring, and a friend. You knew that from the first day you met the guy.”

“When I arrived at Brown as a freshman,” says Jon Resnick ’80, “and onto a very competitive soccer team, Joe was always the person who not only was able to fix you up in a physical way, but also took the time to give you perspective on how to deal with the mental aspects of being on the team. His love of his players was unrivaled. He was one of a kind, and someone who obviously had a huge impact on us. Why else would fourteen guys over forty show up in the heat of the summer to play in his honor?”

During halftime of the tournament final, O’Brien took the microphone to remind his team that “to know Joe was to like him and to really know him was to love him.” Unfortunately, FC Castro lost, 1–0, in a well-fought game. “We would have liked to have taken home the trophy for Joe” said Fred Pereira ’77, “but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”