Keith Castner

Contact Coach Castner:
keith.castner@lakotaonline.com
513.383.2852

Keith Castner has been the girls softball head coach since Lakota West was opened in
1997. Castner first guided the West softball team to a GMC championship in 2003. This
was also the first championship won by a Lakota West team in any spring sport. Also
occurring in 2003 softball became the first Firebird girls sports program to reach the 100
cumulative victory’s milestone. Castner has now coached the Firebirds to six league titles
by adding championships in 2004, 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2014. After each of these
six championship seasons, the Greater Miami Conference coaches voted him the league
coach of the year. Castner has also led the Firebirds to the OHSAA State Final Four on four
occasions (’05, ’06, ’11, ’18-State Runner Up).

The record for the years as the head coach of the Lakota West Softball program is 458-169.
Castner began coaching softball at the old Lakota high school where he was assigned to the
freshman team in 1988. After two years with the freshman team, he moved up to take over
the junior varsity team, and also assisted his brother Steve at the varsity level. When Lakota
split into East and West, Steve took over the head coaching reins at Lakota East and Keith
began his head coaching career at West.

A 1983 graduate of Lakota high school, Castner excelled on the gridiron earning
all GMC honors as a defensive back in 1982. He went on to enjoy a successful four-year
playing career with the Georgetown College of Kentucky football team. Castner
graduated from Georgetown with a BA degree in psychology in 1987. He then became a
teaching assistant and simultaneously began work at Mount St. Joseph’s college to obtain
his teaching credentials in special education. He also coached high school football every
fall from 1987 through 2012.

Coach Castner retired in 2019 from teaching and now currently works as an aide at Hopewell Jr. school in the Lakota School District. He has two sons Colton and Westyn.

The Lakota West Softball Family lives by the motto of “PLAY HARD AND PLAY WITH CLASS”