The community of Red Deer and central Alberta recently lost a sports icon after a long battle with cancer.
Gino Castellan, also known as the ‘Godfather of Football’ or ‘G-Dog,’ passed away at just 60 years old.
First diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019, Castellan fought to defeat the disease but in the fall of 2023, it tragically returned.
As written in a previous article in The Advocate he first moved to Red Deer in 1991 from the University of Alberta to teach and coach at Notre Dame High School.
He planned to only stay here for a year or two before moving back to his hometown of Windsor, Ont. However, he quickly made a new home in Red Deer, which led to decades of memories before he retired in 2022.
Notre Dame Cougars football head coach Ian Rattan, who both played for and coached alongside Castellan, said he was an incredible mentor and friend.
“He always held all of us as athletes and coaches to a really high standard. He’s come across as very abrupt at times but it was because he cared so much,” he said.
“He wanted to invest time in people he thought could be great coaches, players, and teachers. He gave a lot to everybody.”
Not only did he serve as athletic director at Notre Dame for many years, but he coached multiple sports including basketball and track. However, his first love was always football.
He built a strong Notre Dame football program as the head coach but also a strong Central Alberta Football League where he served as commissioner.
He was a long-serving board member at Football Alberta and coached and managed multiple Team Alberta squads. During his 27 years with Football Alberta, he won five championships at the Football Canada Cup.
Castellan has also coached and taught many coaches high school football fans will see on the sidelines today including Rattan, Kyle Liptak (Jr. Cougars), and Kyle Sedgwick (Hunting Hills Lightning football). Ole Stearns, the current head coach of the Lindsay Thurber Raiders football team, also coached alongside him.
“It’s amazing what he’s done for our sport and so many people from the high school level as recent as last week when he passed,” Rattan added.
Castellan demanded excellence on the football field. That didn’t mean he needed to see perfection but he wouldn’t accept anything less than a full effort.
If that meant failure as a result, he was always there to help pick you back up and continue to move forward.
“If you’re going to do it, may as well do it to the best of your ability otherwise why bother? At the same time, he always had your back. He would always fight for his athletes… Not just for kids from Notre Dame but at schools all across central Alberta,” Rattan said.
“He really cared about the kids in central Alberta and really cared about football… He always demanded your best but would give you his, which is pretty incredible.”
Even in his retirement he never stopped advocating for football in Central Alberta.
Most recently, he helped bring the high school football provincial championships to Setters Place last fall, which was a first for Red Deer.
He also often also helped Rattan prepare for games during the football season.
“When I saw him last week we were talking about our spring camp and what we would do on offence and defence. It was just remarkable he was that invested to the end.”
Earlier in life, Castellan played middle linebacker and fullback while working on getting two degrees at the University of Windsor. When his playing career finished at the university he was a two-time provincial first-team all-star and a member of the school’s Wall of Fame.
During that time, he got into coaching football at the high school level in Windsor before he moved to the U of A to finish his education degree.
Dale Henderson, who’s both a teacher and a coach at Notre Dame, said he worked with Castellan for 25 years.
“He really cared about sports and cared about the kids involved. He would always find ways to help them move on to the next level if possible,” Henderson said.
“He would back everyone up if he felt they were right. He had some good battles with referees along the way because he was supporting his athletes.”
Henderson added that his football knowledge was unlike anything he’d seen before. He knew the game so well that it often surprised his players.
“He had very high expectations of his athletes too. He expected a lot out of them and wanted them to be the best they could be.”
He’s survived by his wife Karen as well as his kids Ryan, Robin, and Luke.
“He will be missed.”