You can pick your school, but you can’t pick your family. Ashley and Cameron Kastl both choose ASU and they will always have each other’s support.
Redshirt sophomore Ashley Kastl is a starting outside hitter for the ASU volleyball team and redshirt senior Cameron Kastl is the starting long-snapper for the ASU football team.
Both athletes got to where they are now because of their own personal drives and work ethics. But they were also helped along the way by each other and their loving family.
Cameron and Ashley were stellar students and athletes at Mountain Pointe High School. They both said that being close to their family was the reason they both decided to trade in the maroon and gold of Mountain Pointe for the maroon and gold of ASU.
Ashley said that the athletic competition that she had with her brother helped her improve as an athlete. She said that whatever Cameron did, she would want to follow in his footsteps.
“I would always be around him and his friends and all my guy cousins,” Ashley said. “We were extremely competitive. He would always treat in the sense that if you are going to play with the guys you have to be tough enough to play with us.”
Cameron said that he remembered those days. He sometimes jokingly takes credit for all Ashley’s success.
“Anytime that I would go to some of her games and she would make a good play I’d joke around and say, ‘It’s all because of me, for treating her the way that I did.’”
Cameron may joke about it, but Ashley does give a lot credit to her brother.
“He toughened me up,” she said. “Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Anyone that spends time around the Kastl siblings will say their parents have a great impact on their success.
Fred Mann is the head volleyball coach at Phoenix Mountain Pointe, and was Ashley’s coach for three years. He said Ashley was a special player because she constantly worked to improve, but had fun at the same time.
Mann also said that he was blown away to the love and support that the Kastl family had for each other.
“If you spent some time with her mom or her dad, you’d know exactly why Ashley and Cameron are the way they are,” Mann said. “They’re just the all-American family.”
Phil Abbadessa, the former coach of the Mountain Pointe High football team, said that Cameron was the full package as student athlete. Abbadessa also had similar things to say about the Kastl family.
“It’s a very, very special family because Cameron and Ashley were both great student athletes,” Abbadessa said. “Their parents’ work habits carried over into both of their academic and athletic careers.”
Ashley and Cameron also immediately gave credit to their parents when asked about their success.
During high school and now that they are both in college, both siblings said that their relationship shifted from competitive to more supportive.
Ashley and Cameron faced adversities during their tenures at ASU. Ashley suffered a serious hand injury where she missed most of her sophomore season. Cameron had to work his way onto the ASU football team by being a walk-on.
The Kastls overcame their challenges and have had success at ASU. Ashley worked hard after her injury and now leads the volleyball team in kills this year with 188. Cameron worked to be the starting long-snapper and a scholarship athlete for the football team.
Both siblings said that they would reach out to each other for support and help.
“If I have a bad day she’s always if not the first one then it’s her or my parents to text me or call me,” Cameron said. “(She always has) really inspirational words to pick you up and remind you to keep on keeping on,”
Ashley said that watching Cameron work to make the football team inspired her. When she would get down about her injury she would think of Cameron and what he overcame and then commit to stop feeling sorry for herself and work to come back.
Ashley said Cameron will never stop being her big brother by looking out for her.
“If there are days that I’m not giving it 110 percent I know he is always … on me about making sure that I make the right decisions,” Ashley said. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
