Barry Casterlin begins his first year at Shorter as the Hawks’ linebackers coach after spending the past four seasons as a defensive assistant at Norwich University in Vermont, where he helped the team earn its first-ever NCAA Division II playoff berth in 2011.
While at Norwich, where he earned his master’s degree, Casterlin saw his players earn All-Conference student-athletes honors all four years and had three defensive linemen receive First Team All-Eastern Collegiate Football Conference honors. In 2012, Norwich was 15th in the nation in rushing defense while the 2013 campaign saw Norwich’s defense ranked 28th in total defense, 9th in red zone defense and led the nation in interception percentage. The 2014 campaign saw Norwich ranked 17th in total defense. Casterlin was also charged with leading the PAT/FG block unit that year that was sixth in the nation with eight blocked kicks on the year.
Originally from New Jersey, Casterlin earn a spot on the roster at the University of South Carolina as a walk-on where he played as a defensive back for John Gutekunst, an AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year who was an assistant on head coach Lou Holtz’s staff and was part of the Gamecocks team that turned in one of the biggest turnarounds in NCAA Division I history when they went from being winless in 1999 to winning the Outback Bowl in 2000 and posting an 8-4 record.
After graduating from USC in 2001, Casterlin began his coaching career at Lake City (S.C.) High School coaching football and boys soccer, then coached and taught at Madison (N.J.) High School where he also broke into the college coaching ranks serving as an assistant at Fairleigh Dickinson University coaching the defensive backs.
During the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Casterlin joined the coaching staff at Cheyney University where he served as the Recruiting, Video, and Special Teams Coordinator in addition to coaching the Defensive Line, and for the last three games in 2007 co-coordinated the offense, eventually being named the team’s Interim Head Coach when the season ended.
In 2009, Casterlin came to Georgia where he coached at NCAA Division I FCS Savanah State, arriving to coach the running backs, who finished the season combining for more than 1,000 yards. The next season, Casterlin moved back over to the defense to coach the secondary under then-Interim head coach Julius Dixon, who is Shorter’s defensive coordinator.
Before landing at Norwich, Casterlin worked for BLESTO, one of the NFL’s national scouting agencies, for one season and where he learned valuable lessons and organizational techniques that have become valuable tools in regards to recruiting high school talent, and during his coaching tenure he recruited players in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina.
