By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
Miguel Castro, former sports editor at The Brownsville Herald, has lost his two-year battle against cancer at age 40.
Castro died Tuesday in his native San Antonio.
He came to Brownsville in 2002 and worked at The Herald as a sports writer for a few years before being promoted to sports editor. Castro left The Herald in 2008 to accept a job at the San Antonio Express-News. He continued to live in San Antonio until his death.
He is remembered as a dedicated journalist with an always present sense of humor and smile whose goal was to promote local sports coverage.
Among those who worked with Castro and appreciated his talents was Joshua Caldwell. From 2003-07, Caldwell worked in The Herald sports department with the former sports editor.
“Miguel moved to Brownsville knowing nothing about the city or its people,” said Caldwell, a 2002 Porter graduate who is now an attorney in San Antonio. “He eventually called Brownsville home for a little more than five years. He understood we didn’t work for the New York Times or Dallas Morning News, but knew that our work needed to be just as good for our readers.
“Miguel prided himself on our local coverage, whether it was a Friday night football game or Little League baseball,” Caldwell added. “He knew that our work was going up on kids’ bedroom walls or in scrapbooks and yearbooks, so he made sure we wrote and presented our stories that way.
“Miguel loved covering volleyball and was also an avid player. I’ll miss him.”
Castro was a 1996 graduate of San Antonio Christian School. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas-Austin in 2001.
Besides spending time with his family, the other big passions of his life were following the Texas Longhorns and playing or covering volleyball. He came to be known in the co-ed volleyball community of San Antonio as “Migs” and also as the “Godfather of Volleyball.”
Another person in the Valley who knew Castro well is former Brownsville Pace volleyball coach Paula Gonzalez, now the McAllen ISD athletic director. Castro used to cover Pace’s matches when Gonzalez was the coach.
“I’ll always remember Miguel as such a generous person who loved the game of volleyball,” Gonzalez said. “He was always so helpful. He’d cover our games and we’d compare stats after it was over.
“I liked his style of writing,” Gonzalez said. “He always had something positive to say. We looked forward to reading his stories. More than being a great journalist, Miguel was a great guy. I’m so sorry to hear this news about him.”
Among those who survive Castro are Camila, his wife of 16 years, Genesis, the couple’s young daughter, and Castro’s parents, Miguel H. and Linda Fuentes Castro, all of San Antonio.
Services for Castro are scheduled Saturday in San Antonio beginning with visitation at 2:30 p.m. and a memorial service to follow at 3 p.m. at Mission Park Funeral Chapels North. For more information, call (210) 349-1414.
