🏆 Underdog Mentality, Championship Standard

Carlos Castro is the Manager of Inside Sales for the Denver Nuggets at Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. An Aurora, Colorado native, he played college soccer at Adams State alongside his identical twin brother Mario, broke into the industry on the Street Team for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and the Colorado Rapids, trained at the MLS National Sales Center in Minnesota, and spent more than five seasons with the Rapids before stepping into leadership with the Nuggets.

From Aurora to Adams State

Infatuated with sports from a young age, Carlos loved more than just the teams. “Weird things like logos, sports stats, and history,” he says. He and his twin brother Mario were wired that way.

Like many athletes, his first dream was simply to play in college. That goal led both brothers to Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado, where they played soccer together, met lifelong friends and where Carlos met his wife, all while being close enough for their parents to attend games. “That was a really big thing for my parents and for us,” he says.

Adams State shaped him in ways he did not fully appreciate at the time. Being a student athlete meant discipline, time management, and sacrifice. It also meant understanding percentages, how few athletes actually get to compete at the next level. “It was a culmination of a lot of hard work that I put in and that my parents had put in,” he says. “If I put in the work, something good will happen.” That belief would carry him far beyond the field.

The Crash Course That Changed Everything

After graduation, Carlos admits he did not have everything figured out. “I didn’t do a very good job, honestly, of networking and setting myself up because I didn’t know how to do it.”

His first job was on the Street Team for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and the Colorado Rapids. Long hours. Setup and teardown. Promotions. It was not glamorous. But it gave him exposure to different departments inside the organization.

Then came a turning point. A college roommate and friend told him about the MLS National Sales Center in Blaine, Minnesota, a crash course in ticket sales. Carlos interviewed on a Wednesday. At the end of the conversation he added one more pitch: “I actually have an identical twin brother. He’s got the same exact resume. Can he come along too?” They were told to be there by Sunday night. So they packed up the car they shared and drove 13 hours to Minnesota. The program was intense. It taught him how to ask better questions, how to be personal, how to sell with purpose. Both brothers finished near the top of their class in revenue. Shortly after, Carlos landed an Inside Sales role with the Nuggets.

Choosing the Harder Path

Inside Sales is not glamorous either. It is volume. It is rejection. It is picking up the phone when no one answers. “You’re not getting leads that want thousands of dollars worth of tickets,” he says. After nine months with the Nuggets, he moved into an Account Executive role with the Rapids, where he’d eventually spend five and a half seasons. But after one game of the 2020 MLS season, COVID hit.

No tickets. No commission. Uncertainty everywhere. “There was a part of me that was like, man, do I need to look at something else?” he says. He stayed. Looking back, that decision matters. “I knew my work wasn’t done.” Coming out of the pandemic, he watched a few peers get promoted while he stayed put. For a moment, doubt crept in. “What’s wrong with me?” That was the shift. “Let me not compare myself to everybody else. Let me just focus on what I can do.”

Shortly after, he was voted by his colleagues as the Rapids’ Gold Star Ticket Sales and Service award winner. It was not just based on revenue, but also culture and character. “That is by far the coolest thing when it’s a peer-voted award,” he says. Soon after, he stepped into leadership with the Nuggets as Manager of Inside Sales.

What Actually Separates the Best

Carlos breaks success into two parts. First are the non-negotiables: be on time, be coachable, work hard. But beyond that, he sees three traits that separate great reps and future leaders:

• Curiosity: “Being naturally curious and wanting to ask questions, get feedback, and then implement that feedback.” Improvement is a daily decision.

• Underdog mentality: Even selling for a championship contender, the job is still hard. “Having that underdog mentality of trying to prove it every single day.”

• Embedded motivation: “At the end of the day, it’s not life or death. It’s ticket sales. We’re just selling tickets, but you should absolutely want to be the best.”

So what pushes you on your 90th call in the offseason? “What is inside you? What are you chasing?” For Carlos, that answer runs deeper than quotas.

His Why

His father has owned a carpet cleaning company for decades. It was not necessarily his dream, but it provided opportunity for his sons. “Did he want to grow up cleaning carpets his whole life? I don’t think so. But he did that in order to provide for us so that we could do what we love.”

In 2025, Carlos lost his mother after a long battle with COPD. She was the ultimate soccer mom, driving to practices, paying for tournaments, sacrificing quietly. “She was the Nuggets’ biggest fan. She was the Rapids’ biggest fan,” he says. Losing her was “the toughest thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life.” But her legacy fuels him. “Everything is dedicated to her and to my dad as well.” And that is what carries him, through rejection, through uncertainty, and into leading the next generation of the sports industry.