Alice Senior Landen Brunston-Castillo Signs to Play at Texas Lutheran University

Landen Brunston-Castillo, a multi-sport senior who spent his high school career lining up at running back on the Alice Coyotes football roster and contributing on the baseball diamond, has signed to compete at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, adding his name to the list of Jim Wells County athletes who turned district-level play into a college opportunity.

The commitment, celebrated by family, teammates, and local fans and highlighted in the Alice Echo's April 1 sports coverage, sends Brunston-Castillo roughly three hours up the road to a program with 19 intercollegiate sports and a history that predates most Texas high schools. Texas Lutheran competes as the Bulldogs in NCAA Division III, with most sports falling under the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and the football program competing in the American Southwest Conference. The Bulldogs' football team, which has fielded squads since 1912, finished the 2024 season at 9-1 and reached the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.

The Division III model carries a specific financial reality that parents in Alice should understand: TLU does not offer athletic scholarships, in keeping with DIII rules, but incoming students are eligible for academic scholarships ranging from $20,000 to $25,000 per year, or up to $100,000 across four years. Against a listed tuition of roughly $36,230 annually, those merit awards make TLU financially competitive with larger state schools while delivering a small-campus environment in which Brunston-Castillo will balance coursework and athletics without the separation of a scholarship-driven program.

Brunston-Castillo's profile as a multi-sport contributor is exactly the kind of recruiting story Alice High's coaching staff can use. Alice High, which enrolls roughly 1,290 students in grades 9 through 12 at its campus on Coyote Trail, competes at a level where athletes who want to play in college typically need to develop across multiple sports and perform consistently in district competition. A signing to a university that produced the most Academic All-Americans of any Texas school in Division III signals that the pipeline from Jim Wells County reaches beyond the regional spotlight.

A social media video celebrating Brunston-Castillo's commitment circulated widely in the days around the signing, drawing congratulations from across the community. For younger athletes in Alice who watched that post, the commitment provides a concrete model: play multiple sports, stay competitive in district play, and a college program three hours away may be watching.

Brunston-Castillo will next complete enrollment steps and fulfill any spring or summer obligations set by the TLU coaching staff before beginning his career as a Bulldog.