Valentina Castillo '26 Recruiting Profile

My name is Valentina Castillo and I am a sophomore at Apex Friendship Highschool. I started playing golf about three years ago in the middle of 7th grade. It was the middle of the Pandemic and there wasn't much to do. I had seen my dad golfing as his activity to keep him busy, and one day I decided to join him out of boredom. He took me to the driving range to hit some balls, and we played nine holes. I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would so I ended up taking a few private lessons. After a few months or so I fell in love in love with this sport and decided to pursue it competitively. It wasn't until the summer of 8th grade that I decided I wanted to try out for my school's golf team. That summer I spent a lot of time out in the course, and I also did a lot of strength training and running to stay in shape for golf. My hard work eventually paid off as I made the Varsity team as a freshman. 

A few weeks later, I found out I had torn my achilles tendon, and had a long road of recovery ahead of me. I wasn't allowed to play golf for a few months so that was a setback I had, which has definitely influenced the way I'm playing now. This season hasn't been as successful as I hoped due to all the time I missed out on practice due to injury, but I am constantly working to continue to improve my game, and eventually get back to successfully making all conference team next year. 

Even though my injury was a major setback, I haven't let it stop me from pursuing my golf dreams. I continue to work really hard despite the unfortunate setbacks I came across. I put in a lot of effort on and off the course as well.  Academics are very important to me, so I make sure I stay on top of my schoolwork to be able to play golf. 

I love golf and hope to improve in my offseason and gain more experience to eventually play at a college that will also support my career path of Sports Medicine.