SEPTEMBER 6, 2013
CASTEELE:
Domer by Chance -- Pete LaFleur
chance to hang out with my friends for a few hours.” With the class material and soccer field often failing to capture Van De Casteele’s full attention during his prep days, he gravitated to humor. “Yes, it’s true, in high school I was joking around lot,” he says. “I remember being bummed out when I graduated because I was going to miss goofing around in class. I had this idea of college being very strict and structured but was pleasantly surprised that I still was able to joke around in some of my classes here.”
“Max Lachowecki is hilarious, the funniest person I know, so I thought it would work much better if we did the show together. The whole concept was completely foreign to us but we’ve had a blast doing the show so far,” says Van De Casteele. The resulting show - Grant and Max 1080 (degrees, with of course the degree symbol) - has developed a cult following around the Notre Dame campus. Mike Harrity, a member of the Notre Dame Student Welfare & Development staff, proposed the initial idea after having watched the Between Two Ferns online comedy series, featuring Zach Galifianakis (best known for his role in the Hangover movies). In the online series, Galifianakis conducts a series of celebrity interviews in a low-budget and uniquely offbeat fashion. The signature episode so far in the young history of Grant and Max 1080 is their interview with ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas (it’s only a few minutes and worth the look). received his finance degree and is nine hours short of adding an economics degree to his wall this December. His impressive 3.72 cumulative grade-point average and status as a multi-year starter helped earned Van De Casteele the prestigious BIG EAST Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the 2012-13 academic year. Eight previous Notre Dame student-athletes also have received that top academic honor from the BIG EAST, including women’s soccer players Jen Renola, Jenny Streiffer and Vanessa Pruzinsky and three basketball players (Pat Garrity, Ruth Riley and Tim Abromaitis), plus track hurdler Errol Williams and softball player Jarrah Myers.
Van De Casteele - who recently has combined with teammate Max Lachowecki to become a (minor) YouTube sensation with their online celebrity interview show Grant and Max 1080 readily admits that he was “not very serious” when it came to academics or athletics during his days at Frisco Centennial High School. “Like many people at Notre Dame now, a lot of my schoolwork in high school was not that challenging,” says the current Irish co-captain. “And in high school I didn’t really take soccer too seriously either, it was just something I did for fun. I had known most of my teammates since we were 11 years old and it basically was a
Prior to his Notre Dame career, Van De Casteele had never played at the center back position. “I started out in soccer as a forward and was really fast as a kid, I think I peaked athletically a little early,” laughs the four-year Irish starter. “I also played some outside midfield and then moved to outside back for my club team, in a 4-4-2 formation. I would get forward and try to be creative on the ball but I wasn’t that good at defense, I was more offensively inclined.” Considering the extensive youth soccer network and collection of elite clubs throughout the state
THE 2013 FIGHTING IRISH
Van De Casteele’s humorous side gained a social-media platform a year ago, when he was approached with the idea of hosting a comedybased interview show that would be posted on YouTube as part of the newly-created Notre Dame student-athlete blog, Through Irish Eyes. As the men’s soccer team’s representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, Van De Casteele seemed a logical choice … but he had an even better idea.
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