#999 Ray Castle Season 2020-21
(updated 9/02/04)
Ray Castle enters his third year on the LSU campus as Director of the Athletic Training Concentration in the Department of Kinesiology, while also assisting the athletic training staff in the medical coverage of LSU athletes. Castle is no stranger to LSU, as he completed his bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology in 1990.
Additionally, he served as an athletic training student for the LSU Athletic Department, where his primary duties included assisting with the medical coverage of women’s track & field (1988), women’s basketball (1988-89), and football (1989-90).
An experienced athletic trainer with a strong background in athletics at various competition levels and athletic training education, Castle lead the university’s efforts in obtaining its first ever CAAHEP-accredited athletic training education program in April 2004.
On the collegiate level, Castle has served as assistant athletic trainer at the University of Southern Mississippi from 1993-94, where he worked with football. From 1995-98, he served as assistant athletic trainer and instructor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. While in Lafayette, he served as the athletic trainer for football, men’s basketball, track & field, and men’s golf.
On the international level, Castle served as a volunteer athletic trainer at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA, and also served a two-week volunteer rotation at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY. In 2003, Castle was selected by the United States Olympic Committee to serve on the USOC Medical Staff for the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where he served as the athletic trainer for the men’s and women’s track cycling teams.
After graduation from LSU in 1990, he earned his master’s degree from The University of Southern Mississippi in 1993, serving as a graduate assistant athletic trainer for football and baseball from 1991-1993. From 1998-00, he returned to USM as a doctoral graduate assistant athletic trainer, where he worked with football and track & field, where he earned his PhD in Administration and Teaching in 2000.
Prior to arriving at LSU, Castle served as assistant professor and director of the athletic training education program at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, FL, and also provided medical coverage to the soccer’s teams during his stint there from 2000-02
He also worked stints in 1991 with Baton Rouge Physical Therapy, 1993-94 as assistant athletic trainer with the University of Southern Mississippi, and 1994-95 as staff athletic trainer with Lake Charles Memorial Hospital Sports Medicine Department.
Castle is an active member of the athletic training profession, having authored numerous presentations on the state and national level, as well as serving on various committees of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA). Currently, he serves as chair of the NATA Educational Multimedia Committee, as a member of the NATA’s Education Council Executive Committee, and co-chair of the Southeastern Athletic Trainers’ Association Annual Athletic Training Student Clinical Symposium.
Castle has been a Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC) through the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Board of Certification since 1991, and is also a Licensed Athletic Trainer (LAT) by the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners.
Castle is married to the former Katherine Vanduzee of Baton Rouge, La.
The Castle File
Year at LSU: Third (appointed August 2002)
Birthdate: Dec. 4, 1965
Wife: Katherine
High School: Tensas Academy
Hometown: St. Joseph, LA
College: LSU ’90 (Kinesiology)
Postgraduate: The University of Southern Mississippi ’91 (Master’s); The University of Southern Mississippi ’00 (Doctor of Philosophy)