Nick Castro

As a kid, I grew up in a small agricultural town on the Arizona-California border labeled Blythe, CA. Blythe is located off Interstate I-10 on the banks of the Colorado River. Blythe is the half-point between Los Angeles and Phoenix about eighty miles from the Mexico-United States border. I love sports and grew up playing many, however, in high school, I focused on football, basketball, and baseball. 

I have always wanted to teach and coach. Therefore, after highschool, I ventured off to college. I received an undergraduate degree in Health Science from California State University, Chico, a master's degree in Health Education and Physical Education from Western Carolina University, and a Ph.D. in Sport, Exercise, and Nutrition from Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand. My Ph.D. research examined the associations among body fatness, physical fitness, physical [in]activity, sedentary behavior, nutrition, and sleep with cardiometabolic risk in New Zealand preadolescent children. 

I completed my Ph.D. in 2018, and have been working in higher education ever since. I enjoyed teaching at the university level, but I missed coaching, teaching, and working with the youth even more. Therefore, I decided to leave higher education and pursue a teaching and coaching job in the Asheville area. I want to make an impact in a community through teaching, coaching, and mentoring and I believe Brevard Academy is that place. When I moved to Cullowhee from San Diego to attend Western Carolina for graduate school, I fell in love with the Blue Ridge Mountains. Once I graduated from Western Carolina University, I moved to Wellington, New Zealand to pursue a Ph.D. but I always knew I would be back.