South Tahoe High's McCallan Castles signs to play for Cal Bears

There will be a lot more Cal football fans in South Lake Tahoe over the next four years after McCallan Castles signed his letter of intent to play for Coach Wilcox and the University of California Bears Wednesday.

The highly recruited South Tahoe High School (STHS) senior had 18 Division 1 schools trying to get him to sign with them. He narrowed the list down to Utah, Washington State, Duke and Cal before making the decision, something that was easy the moment he stepped onto the Berkeley campus.

"We are looking for guys that are smart, tough and love football," said Coach Wilcox of how he looks for players. "Guys that value the team. When you put those things together, if they have the right amount of talent or skill AND they have the right academic profile, those are the people we are going after.

Castles, surrounded by family, teammates and coaches as he signed his letter is getting ready for the basketball season, but will be all football next summer.

The 6'5" South Tahoe High tight end works out every day in the school's Strength and Conditioning room, something that has helped him add 25 pounds of muscle since his junior year of high school.

"According to him he was born to do this," said mom Alison, a nurse at Barton Health. She recalled the masses of Cal football fans heading to games in their rugby style fan shirts as she was growing up in Orinda, Calif., and now she'll be joining them.

She and McCallan's dad Tom were at their son's signing day at STHS. They were living in South Lake Tahoe when McCallan was born at Barton, then they relocated to Colorado and moved back to Tahoe in August of 2016.

McCallan made an instant impact for the South Tahoe Vikings.

"I was real excited," said South Tahoe High Coach Louis Franklin of McCallan's coming to STHS. "He filled a great need in football and basketball."

Franklin said the future Cal tight end is a great role model for younger players, especially because of the kind of person he is.

"He is a solid community member," said Coach Franklin. "He is a good human being, volunteers in the community and in the special needs classroom." One can always see the smiling McCallan hanging out with the most challenged in that ".

This is the type of player Coach Wilcox is also looking for.

"You can gauge how much he loves football by how he plays the game: does he chase the ball, does he run to the ball on defense, does he block downfield. How good a teammate comes from the coaches or people connected to the program," said Wilcox on "AskCoachWilcox" on Twitter Wednesday. "You get a feel when you talk to folks in the school, what kind of person he is. Once you get to know them you can ask specific questions to get an idea what he is really about."

After McCallan graduates in June he'll head to Cal to start school and workouts. He will be majoring in Media Studies with plans to go into broadcasting as a sports analyst after a pro career in football, of course.

"That'd be great!" said McCallen if he goes to the next level after Cal. His family are big Kansas City Chiefs fans, so who knows, perhaps he'll being wearing red in four more years?

To younger players, McCallen passed on a few easy goals to excel as an athlete: "Be in the weight room, it increases your athletic ability, and always be in a sport."

In team photo: Back row, left to right: Coach Louis Franklin, Cody Griffis and Jakob Costley. Front row, left to right: Matt Cain, McCallan Castles, Peyton Galli and Caleb Moretti.