The Road Less Traveled: Claudia Castellanos' Journey from Spain to Lindenwood University

This story is also available in Spanish here.

“I can’t talk to him right now; my brain is not working.”

Words wouldn’t come out of Claudia Castellanos’ mouth when she realized her U19 head coach was dialing her dad’s number.

Her dad was over 3,600 miles away in Madrid, Spain, at work. When her father answered the phone, he asked his daughter to translate the news her head coach was sharing with him into Spanish.

“I just commit[ted] to Lindenwood,” Castellanos finally blurted out—she was on her way to play college hockey.

Her father began to cry.

Castellanos then reached out to her mom, who was at a bachelorette party, via FaceTime to tell her the same news. 

Her mother also began to cry.

Her daughter, who at four years old grew so frustrated with figure skating and was so drawn to the hockey players her class shared the ice rink with in Spain that she changed sports, was going to continue her hockey career in the United States.

Spain isn’t a country most people think of when they think of ice hockey, but for Castellanos, it was the perfect place for her to start her hockey journey.

The redshirt freshman, who is sitting out this season, is the first Spanish player in NCAA Division I hockey history. While her path to the sport wasn’t typical, Castellanos has enjoyed the journey hockey has taken her on and is looking forward to what her collegiate career has to offer.

It all began after Castellanos dropped figure skating for ice hockey. She began to play at age five. By age 13, she was playing forward in the Liga Iberdrola de Hockey Hielo, the only league for women’s hockey in the country. Castellanos said it’s common for players that young to play in the league, given the sport is still growing and there aren’t that many players in the country. The league doesn’t have age limits, so players of all ages can play.

That’s how Castellanos ended up playing with her mom in the league. After she picked up hockey, Castellanos’ dad, and later, her mom and sisters, picked up the sport too. She later joined her mother on C.H. Valdemoro, a historic team that has qualified for the league playoffs five of the last six seasons. Playing on the same team with her mom led to some special connections on the ice.

“They put us [o]n the same line and we scored goals together,” Castellanos said with a laugh. “We were so good, it was really fun.”

On the International Stage

One of Castellanos’ goals was to play for Spain’s senior national team. She didn’t imagine that she would accomplish that feat by age 15. She would have normally played for Spain’s U18 team at the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship, Division II. But that tournament was rescheduled to the summer from its initial January dates, so the Women’s World Championship happened before the U18. To Castellanos’ shock, she earned a spot for the 2022 World Championship with the senior national team as its youngest member.

“I was never expecting…my first worlds to be senior worlds,” Castellanos admitted. “Because at first, I was like we have U18 now. If I do it good, maybe I can go to seniors. That was like a maybe but when I saw I was going, I was like, ‘oh my God.’ I start[ed] crying.”

Wearing the jersey for her country was an honor for Castellanos. Though she was nervous about the tournament, she said it was a nice experience for her. Spain managed to finish with a bronze medal, a medal Castellanos said was special because she won it with the senior national team.

Later that summer, Castellanos made her U18 debut. She led Spain to a gold medal win, finishing the tournament leading her team with 11 points in five games. That led her to ranking second in points overall in the tournament. 

It was something that surprised Castellanos about herself. “Oh my god,” she said was her reaction to finding out she had finished just one point behind the top scorer of the whole tournament.

Her stellar performance in her U18 debut was helped by the experience she gained from playing on the senior team, but Castellanos was also quick to credit the boys she grew up playing with for her international success that summer.

She noted one of the biggest differences when playing with women was the lack of physicality and speed that she had to adjust to when playing with men.

“It was so much contact, speed and everything… playing with guys make[s] me be aggressive with girls,” Castellanos said. “I'm playing [in] worlds. I need to be aggressive because in their hometowns, they play with body contact, not like us. That still happens even in seniors, we still have that problem that maybe we lose because we don't have that much contact.”

From Spain to Canada and from Canada to the United States

At 16, Castellanos decided to leave Spain to move to Canada to continue advancing her hockey career. She played with the single-A Sudbury Lady Wolves. It was an opportunity for Castellanos to play hockey, be a student, and live outside of home. In the summer, she took part in the College Hockey Showcases. These camps are primarily for players to demonstrate their skills to college coaches and allow the players to learn from coaches that take part in the events in order to improve their skills.

Through the CHS showcase, Castellanos was able to join the Newark Ironbound 19U AAA team to help her development while attending high school. Immediately after joining the team, she noticed how different it was from her previous experience in Canada.

“It was insane how good people were, how fast it was. It was hard too, because it was very, very aggressive,” Castellanos said. She noted how the new team complimented her past experience of playing aggressively with boys. “When I play with guys, I play smarter. I do simple plays compared [to when] I play with girls.”

That season, Castellanos amassed 80 points in 58 games. She had never expected to find herself leading the team in points, especially by 23 points. She said she felt as if she was living in a movie because of how well that season had gone for her. Castellanos also noted how shocked people were that a player from a country that is mostly unheard of in the world of hockey being able to play so well in her first season. However, Castellanos was quick to rebut their comments and instead focus on the confidence having a great season gave her.

“That helped me a lot with my confidence, my trust in me,” Castellanos explained. “It helped people to trust me more because I was from Spain, [no one] was expecting me [to] be that good or be that helpful for the team… and I guess it helped coaches for other teams to see how good I can be.”

A Dream Realized

Division I hockey had never crossed Castellanos’ mind. That was, until she joined Ironbound and learned of collegiate level hockey. Suddenly, she had a new dream.

Castellanos already knew Lindenwood head coach Taylor Wasylk. They met in a CHS camp, and Wasylk then joined Spain’s senior national team coaching staff as an assistant. The two have known each other for more than three years. Wasylk liked the way Castellanos played hockey and watched her games when she was in New Jersey, which led to an offer to play at Lindenwood. 

In May 2024, Castellanos committed to play for the Lions, starting in the 2025-26 season. It was the only official Division I offer Castellanos received.

The work wasn’t done, though. Castellanos has been able to grow her game through hard work and dedication and through something many others may not think about: scholarships. Castellanos was on a scholarship while playing for the Ironbound and aimed to improve her play in her second year to get a scholarship from Lindenwood, too.

In her final year in New Jersey, she finished with 42 points in 48 games.

Her season ended in December 2024 and Castellanos decided to return home. She played in the women’s league with S.A.D. Majadahonda and in the U18 league with the C.H. Majadahonda team, where she once again played with boys.

A Golden Moment

In the spring, Castellanos took part in the Division IIA women’s world championship with Spain, where she finished tied for second in points on the team en route to a gold medal win. It was a tournament full of adversity for her and her teammates, according to Castellanos.

The Spanish team started the tournament with a loss to Iceland, a team she said Spain would normally beat easily. That loss fueled the team—they were able to ready the ship and battle it out with Poland in the gold medal game. Castellanos scored a goal that game, helping Spain secure the gold and move up to Division I, Group B, for the first time in the senior national team’s history.

“It was so hard and so stressful to get the gold,” Castellanos explained. “We worked a lot and we were speechless, we were so happy, we were crying.”

When Spain makes their debut at next year’s world championship, they won't just be playing in a new division; they’re also hosting the tournament. That knowledge makes Castellanos a little nervous but she’s excited for the tournament and the exposure hockey will have in Spain. She’s hoping her younger sister Carlota can join her on the national team for the first time.

She is also looking forward to the chance for her family to see her play again after being away for the past few years. 

Father Knows Best

Having her dad in the stands has always been special for Castellanos. He has only missed one of her Worlds tournaments, and when he’s in the stands, she always looks to him for advice.

“Me and my dad have a language that no one understands,” she explained. “If you see me looking at the stands and you see my dad doing weird stuff with his hands… he's talking to me.”

Her dad usually tells her to remain calm and reminds her to play hard. It’s a habit for Castellanos to always check in with her dad with a thumbs up. It was an adjustment when Castellanos played in New Jersey, because she didn’t have the usual visual advice in the stands. She believed it led to her getting into more fights that season because she didn’t have her dad being her voice of reason during games.

“It's hard, he helps me to control my mental health too,” Castellanos said. “So, I need [him] in the games. I need to look at [him.] That's why I feel being [at Lindenwood] is hard too.

The Next Chapter

Castellanos moved to St. Charles, Mo., to begin university. She decided to redshirt her freshman season on the advice of her head coach. She wants to work on improving her skills and adding more speed as well. While the decision did make her sad at first, Castellanos does believe it will help her game, and she said she’s also happy to get a fifth year because of it. The waiting will be worth it once she gets to officially hit the ice with her Lindenwood teammates next season.

“I’m so excited because it's going to be so much different [than how] I have been playing.

It's going to be so much [more] intense. It's going to be more physical contact and everything,” Castellanos said. “I can't wait.”

While Castellanos still has five years of college left, she’s already inspiring younger players, including her own sisters. Younger sister Carlota is following in the footsteps of her oldest sister by currently playing in Canada, and 13-year-old Lucia is on the S.A.D. Majadahonda team back home in Spain, with aspirations to play outside the country too.

When she does play for Lindenwood, Castellanos hopes to return to her old scoring ways, to be the team’s top scorer, and even break some records along the way.

She has a new dream now: to play in the PWHL. That would make her the first player from Spain in the league. 

There’s so much left for Castellanos to still accomplish at the collegiate level, and even with a gold medal in hand, Castellanos isn’t satisfied.

“I always try to be better than I am.”