48 Hour Primer | Banjo Bowl

And so, earlier this season when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers placekicker was in a bit of a funk -- he was five-of-eight in his field goal attempts through the first three games -- the tips undoubtedly flooded his headspace.

Coaches, teammates, fellow kickers all had some advice... as did his five-year old son, Jared.

"It's funny," began Castillo in a chat with bluebombers.com on Wednesday. "Early on the season when I was having some misses Jared said, 'You know, Dad, just aim down the middle and you'll make it.' I loved it.

"I also love that he's starting to understand what I do now. He thinks I'm a bad-ass, which is cool."

Castillo has been bad-ass since that early season dip, with the uber-popular kicker now on a serious roll in having connected on 22 consecutive field goal attempts.

Just to put that into perspective, that's six shy of tying Justin Medlock's club record of 28 set over the 2016-17 seasons and ties his own personal best, set over 2022-23 as a member of the Edmonton Elks and then Blue Bombers.

Now, normally we'd be reluctant to trot out all this here on the site because, well, just in case there's a 'kicker jinx' in talking about consecutive makes the same way there is in mentioning a no hitter in baseball in the late innings or a goaltender nearing a shutout in the closing minutes of the third period.

To that end, when asked about Castillo's current run after practice today head coach Mike O'Shea grinned and said, "I'm going to leave him be. I'm not going to talk to Serge for the next little while and just let him go about his business.

"He also brought in some homemade tamales this morning and had them for breakfast. He's been excellent."

Funny thing is, Castillo will insist this is all a cool subject to broach with him because he's in such a good place right now both mentally and physically. So good, in fact, that when he misses again -- and that's inevitable in his business -- he'll just follow it up by going on another long run.

"I am dialled in," he said. "And I've been chasing this feeling, this type of confidence. I haven't felt like this since training camp 2014 with the Atlanta Falcons. I was free. I wasn't thinking about football, and I just knew the ball was going to go in. I've been on certain streaks before, but this is the type of thing I've been chasing, this type of mindset, since 2014.

"We're here. Early on this year there was a struggle, but now I'm just in a good head space. I just know the ball is going to in... Ian (Leroux, long snapper) makes it so much easier. Jams (holder and punter Jamieson Sheahan) makes it so much easier. There was a kick a few games ago where I slipped but it went through because everything else was so good with the snap and the hold. Full props to them because they don't get a lot of credit.

"Those guys are so good I just have my one or two cues and then it's just, 'Let's go.'"

It certainly an injustice to simply mention Leroux and Sheahan as part of Castillo's kicking battery. In fact, Sheahan -- who holds a master's degree from Cal and is a mental health advocate -- is akin to Castillo's caddy. He's there for every kick with all the info needed, watches the new play clock, understands targets and, most importantly, truly knows what works for his compadre.

"What year is this for him now? 12?" began Sheahan. "He just has this belief -- and we all have this belief in him -- that he's just one of the best at what he does. When things go a little off track, it's about getting back to your process and that's something Serge and I talk about often and have done in our four years together.

"Serge has got into his process really well after what was a big of a sluggish start by his standards."

The Blue Bombers kicking battery's faith in that process was never more evident than in last week's overtime loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Labour Day Classic, when Castillo hit all four of his attempts to push his streak to 22.

Mosaic Stadium in Regina, you see, can be a bit of a nightmare for kickers.

"It's the pre-game in Sask," said Sheahan, "and it's always a windy game there and it's also a bit of a strange stadium to kick in with the crosswinds, an open corner at one end which wreaks havoc on the wind and then an open end at the other.

"But we had a really great plan in the pre-game. We set up everything so that we knew exactly where we were kicking from where we were aiming to what our tempo is because we did it all beforehand as part of our process.

"He's been really detailed in his process. It makes my job really easy as a caddy. It's, 'Hey Serge, everything we do in the warm-up, we're going to do right now on this kick.' We've always had really good communication over our four years together and it feels like it's gone to another level with our detail, especially with the new clock and everything.

"He's on a roll and my job is to keep him rolling."

Castillo also has another weapon that has help keep him rolling this year -- his family. His wife and young daughter Luisa have returned home to Amarillo, where Adriana is a teacher, but Jared and Castillo's mother will remain Winnipeg for a few more weeks.

"Back when I was with the Falcons and in a good space it really was because I was just so naive," Castillo said. "I had no idea how the business worked and was just so excited to be on the team. And right now... having my family here helped a lot. Someone from my family has been here since Week 1, including Jared.

"Going home and being a dad is important to me. After the game last week when we lost my boy started crying because he hadn't seen me in two days. We flew out and then got back late after the game. I went into dad mode right away and it's not just about football then.

"I keep preaching it -- if you can find something outside of football to occupy your mind, it's important and because of that, I'm in a good place."