Lessons from the field

Former Carolina soccer star gives $100,000 to soccer program

It was cold. Very cold. The wind chill hovered at minus 16 degrees.

The UNC women’s soccer players had tried to prepare. Thick tights wrapped their legs and sweatshirts covered their arms. Gloves insulated their hands and fingers. They’d even smeared Vaseline on their ears to protect the flesh from the icy blasts.

And yet, as they got ready to take the field, they couldn’t help but wonder whether the frigid conditions that day in Amherst, Mass., would be more than a team from the sunny South could handle.

Much loomed in the balance—this was a semifinal match in the 1987 NCAA championships. Win and have a shot at claiming the trophy. Lose and go home.

And then, Anson Dorrance ripped off his coat, his tie and finally his shirt. He paced back and forth in the sub-freezing temperature and shouted, over and over again: “It’s not cold.”
Keath Castelloe Low (left) and fellow team members warm up on that very cold day in 1987 for the NCAA championships.

The women’s team trounced the opposition that day and rolled to the title the next.

Such lessons from her former coach inspired Keath Castelloe Low and her family to give a $100,000 endowment to the program last spring.

“Anson is an incredible teacher and motivator,” said Castelloe Low, who co-captained the 1987 squad. “The lessons he taught us transcend the soccer field and are lessons to be used in life.

“The power of a positive attitude and outlook is one of the many lessons I learned. That day and Anson’s crazy display taught me the importance of having a positive attitude and the impact this attitude can have on accomplishing a goal.”
A recent picture of Castelloe Low

Castelloe Low’s gift established the Keath Castelloe Low Endowment. Interest income from the fund will supplement the UNC women’s soccer program operating budget, going to needs such as assistant coaches’ salaries and recruiting and travel expenses.

“Amazingly, the program operates on a budget much smaller than many of the women’s soccer programs across the nation,” Castelloe Low said. “An endowment is very important if the program is going to continue to compete at the high level to which we have been accustomed.” 

Last year, Dorrance, his coaching staff and 2003-04 team created this list of the program’s 11 core values:  We don’t complain. We work hard. The truly extraordinary do something every day. We choose to be positive. When we don’t play as much as we would like, we are noble and still support the team and its mission. We don’t over-react to small issues or create crises where none exists. We are well led. We care about each other as teammates and human beings. We play for each other. We want our lives (and not just in soccer) to be never-ending ascensions. We want these four years to be rich, valuable and deep.

“Each player strives to live these values,” Castelloe Low said. “These are the values that make participating in this program such an extraordinary experience. These are the lessons that provide enduring direction for a lifetime.”

Castelloe Low’s name will be associated with the value of “We care about each other as teammates and human beings.” One team member who exemplifies that value will be selected each year to have her name added to a plaque in the McCaskill Soccer Center.

“I can’t think of a better individual to represent that core value than Keath because she lived by those words when she was a Tar Heel,” Dorrance said when the $100,000 gift was announced.

Castelloe Low was a defender on Dorrance’s teams from 1984 to 1987. The Raleigh native attended Hale High School and walked on the UNC program. Along with earning a starting role and being named co-captain of the 1987 champions, she was invited to play in the United States Olympic Festival.

“Keath represents everything that is good about college athletics,” Dorrance said. “She was hard-working, strong and determined. She did not come to Chapel Hill on an athletic scholarship but improved her game to the point where as a senior she was an elite player. She’s even more of an amazing person.”

Dorrance, who’s coached 18 national championship teams, said Castelloe Low’s endowment gift and more like it will play a key role in the program’s future. “It is critical for us to build the endowment to maintain our operating expenses. This fund-raising effort is paramount if we want to compete at the level we have enjoyed over the last 25 years.”

Castelloe Low feels good about doing her part to continue that winning tradition.

“I’m honored to have been a part of the UNC athletics program,” she said. “My college soccer experiences have been a highlight in my life. Through the endowment my family and I have been able to give back to a program that gave so much to me.”

Castelloe Low, who now lives in Chapel Hill, has numerous Carolina family ties. Her brother and mother call UNC their alma mater, and her father, Thomas E. Castelloe, earned undergraduate and medical degrees here and recently endowed a professorship in the medical school (see related story, No bones about it) Jeff, her husband, is a 1984 graduate who works as IT director for “All Kinds of Minds,” a program affiliated with the Center for Development and Learning. He and Keath met playing in a local soccer league, began dating during her senior year and then married in 1991.

Castelloe Low has a master’s in counseling psychology from Boston College to go along with her Carolina psychology degree and worked with children, adolescents and their families at a mental health program for seven years until the birth of her first child in 1997. 

She and Jeff have since added three kids to the picture. Though she no longer plays competitive soccer, Castelloe Low enjoys “chasing the soccer ball and my children around in the yard.”

And, not surprisingly, the family also likes to head out to Fetzer Field and cheer on the Tar Heels.

 
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