Ghost

Soon after meeting Castle, Coach tells him, “You can’t run away from yourself. Unfortunately, ain’t nobody that fast” (51). Castle doesn’t yet know that Coach came from similar circumstances, but Coach, like Castle, has tried to put as much running between himself and his past as he can. However, trying to run from it only distracted him. It wasn’t until Coach began to grapple with the truth of his past that he began to overcome it, and even to embrace it as competitive fuel. 

Castle says that he has no memories of a time when he wasn’t running. He is always trying to escape. When he admits that he is scared of himself because he can’t always control himself, he is also admitting that he feels trapped by his past. Castle has to be proud of who he is in order to reach his potential, and the same is true of Sunny, Lu, Patty, and Coach. 

Coach always emphasizes to him team that “you can’t run away from who you are, but what you can do is run towards who you want to be” (155). The past cannot be changed, but the future can.