Fighter has come full circle: Castro goes from successful mixed martial artist to coach

SAVANNA – When Jeremy Castro punches out for work, he’s not done punching.

After he’s done with his day job – as a student services specialist for West Carroll Middle School, you can find him working out, or running his gym where he teaches kickboxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu and more.

Or, sometimes, you'll even find him locked in a cage, face-to-face with fists and feet.

Pretty good for someone who’s smack-dab in the middle of being middle-aged.

Castro doesn’t feel like all of 44. The Savanna native can shoot, punch and kick as well as someone half his age, and the former high school wrestler doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.

That skill for staying on his feet has helped hone his mental acuity, which comes in handy in his job at West Carroll, and his tough tenacity has helped him as a professional mixed martial arts fighter who has fought for 15 years on cards in seven states.

Perfecting his technique with age also is something that keeps Castro going, he said.

"You got to have your wits out there," he said. "You got to be thinking 'If he does this, I'm doing this,' and it's five or six things down the line. With three 5-minute rounds, people don't realize how much cardio it has."

As brutal as the sport can be, Castro says the biggest, and best, takeaway from his love of fighting is being victorious when facing a skilled opponent: Who's tougher than who, who's quicker than who, and who's smarter than who.

"I just love to compete," Castro said. "I'm not one of those guys who wants to go beat someone's face. There's no better competition than one-on-one, being locked in the cage, and one guy wins. This is the ultimate competition."

His success as a high school and college wrestler led him to a pro career that began in 2006. He has 35 wins and 24 losses to his credit, and most recently fought at Pinnacle Combat 31 in Dubuque, Iowa, on Sept. 28; the 155-pound lightweight made his opponent – 18 years his junior – tap out with a keylock submission hold in the first round.

If it wasn't for a hot Nintendo game he yearned for as a child, Castro's interests may have been quite different.

Wrestling was popular in Savanna. The Indians' high school program won six state championships from 1973 to 1981, and solidified itself as one of Illinois' premier small-school powers. Many wrestlers from there have been crowned state champions, and Castro's father thought his son could be just as good as them.

But Castro wasn't interested at first, preferring his Nintendo over fighting.

“‘I’ll buy you a Nintendo game if you just try it,’” he recalled his father telling him. "I went out, loved it, got my Nintendo game, and ended up getting a college scholarship out of it, and a fight career."

Not very many students came out for the sixth-grade team, but the allure of more video game time helped Castro get a spot on the team. Just a few years later, he became more successful on the mat than with a controller in his hands. He was Class A runner-up at 125 pounds in 1992, and earned another second-place finish at 130 pounds the following year. He then moved on to Northern Illinois University, where he won letters and wrestled for 4 years.

Fighting wasn't in the cards for Castro right after college. He landed a teaching gig at the regional alternative school in Savanna, and even coached youth wrestling for a while.

Video games were a thing of the past for him, but he was still getting some screen time – only now he had his eyes on a TV, often watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship series on Spike TV. The UFC circuit was growing in popularity, and once he started watching it, it didn’t take long for him to wonder how he would stack up against some of the fighters on TV.

"There were really no rules," Castro said. "When you start watching that, you start thinking as a competitor, 'Man, I think I can beat that guy,' and 'I think I can beat that guy.'"

As it turned out, one of the top feeder programs for mixed martial arts professionals was just a short drive away, at Miletich Fighting Systems in Bettendorf, Iowa.

"A world-class gym like that an hour away, I thought I'd check it out," he said.

Less than 2 months later, Castro pulled away from the amateur ranks and became a professional. The road wasn't easy, and he sometimes thought about waiting a little longer before becoming a pro. Nevertheless, he stuck with it, and today he continues to find new ways to hone his technique.

"Those first 12 to 15 fights, that was pretty much just my wrestling: Take them down, pound them, not get submitted," Castro said. "I'm pretty well-rounded now. Wrestling will take you a long way, just the mental side of it – cutting weight, learning how to grind – but the big thing is getting used to being punched in the face."

He's been the main event, or the co-main, for more than one-third of his career. He's fought for championships at Pinnacle Combat in Dubuque and the Midwest Cage Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. After fighting in as many as six bouts a year, family and professional life have settled in to reduce his schedule to two or three matches a year.

One of his recent bouts was a boxing match on July 18 in Davenport; not quite his style, but he said it felt great to fight in a different style.

"Being able to hang around for 15 years and fight 60 times, I'm pretty proud of that," he said.

Because of his experience, he's learned enough to teach others. That's where the next phase of his pro career is starting to take shape: he's trained aspiring fighters in many disciplines and opened a gym – Battlecat MMA – in March at Leanne's Dance Connection in Morrison. Kickboxing is taught on Tuesdays; wrestling, submission holds and jiu-jitsu are Thursday lessons; and open sparring takes place each Saturday.

Classes have about 15 to 20 students a night, which Castro says is "pretty good" for just starting out. Women love it, too: "They kick hard and have a lot of flexibility," he said.

"It's one thing learning it, having been around it for 15 years, but when you're teaching it, you're a little nervous. You wonder if you know what you're doing enough to teach it, but it makes me feel good to see them make so much progress.

"It's been a big thing throughout my career. It really helps me connect with my students. It's been real good so far."

One of the people he’s taught has been a student of his twice, in the classroom and on the mat.

Growing up, C.J. Schreiner of Shannon had struggled in school and was put in Castro's alternative program. He eventually wised up, graduated from Eastland High School in 2014, and served in the Marines, where he learned about jiu-jitsu.

Feeling that he wanted to learn more, he reached out to his former teacher, reconnecting with Castro after military service nearly 2 years ago. Castro had sessions at the Iron Horse Fitness Club in Savanna at that time, and Schreiner started going – and he hasn't let up.

"Jeremy's always been very positive, and has been a very good role model," Schreiner said. "I was in that class where people weren't the greatest."

"It's pretty awesome training with him, seeing him come full circle from a goofy little eighth-grader that couldn't stay out of trouble," Castro said. "I'm so proud of him."

Castro, too, has come full circle, going from student to teacher, from fighter to trainer, fed by his love of the sport and his passion for teaching it to others.

"Most of those guys are 20 years younger than me, but I can go with all of them and it keeps me going,” he said. “I love that I can hang with them."

Take a lesson

Battlecat MMA offers lessons in strike fighting every Tuesday: kids classes are at 4:30 p.m., beginner and intermediate classes are at 5:30, and advanced sessions are at 6:30. Wrestling and grappling sessions are at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday, and open sparring is from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each Saturday. Those interested in lessons can stop by during classes, or find BattleCat MMA on Facebook.

The gym is inside LeAnne's Dance Connection, 107 N. Sawyer Road in Morrison.

Follow Castro on Instagram@jccastro_mma for fight pictures and more information.