“Basketball junkie” Judy Castles returns to run tournament for 22nd year in a row
Judy Castles is helping the 2026 Zespri AIMS Games basketball tournament run smoothly. Twenty-two years ago, she helped coordinate the very first edition of the event.
When Judy Castles helped organise the first ever AIMS Games 22 years ago, she “never, ever imagined” it would get so big. They started out with just 12 basketball teams, playing in the relatively tiny Mount Action Centre. This year, 162 basketball teams are competing in the event, including the 3×3 division.
The 22nd edition of the AIMS Games is set to be the biggest yet, with 14,506 athletes aged 11 to 13 from 467 schools competing across 27 sporting codes.
When Castles started out at AIMS, she was the operations manager for Western Bay Basketball. Since the first event, she was the co-coordinator of basketball at AIMS. Though she stepped down from that role three years ago, she still comes back each year to help run the basketball as the results coordinator.
“I’m a bit of a basketball junkie, really,” she confessed.
She has played, coached, and refereed countless basketball games over the years. Her interest in the sport started in her 4th form in college, when she went to the gym and joined in with some kids who were there playing. After that, she decided that basketball was for her, and promptly quit her netball team.
Castles was born in Galatea, a small farming community, and did her schooling in Murupara.
At 69 years old, she’s still playing twice a week with her Swish seniors group, which has members as old as 86. She said one of the things she loved most about basketball is that “you can play this sport forever.”
Though her team does more walking than running, they’re just as enthusiastic about the sport as ever. In fact, her club is taking two teams to the Pan Pac Masters Games on the Gold Coast in November this year.
Castles said one of the things she enjoys most about AIMS is bringing together so many kids together in one place. She loves the whole environment, the social element, and the pathways it opens up for kids.
AIMS is the only event of its kind for intermediate students, which makes it an important opportunity for young athletes. She said it’s “such a great entry-level school based tournament,” and that the event gives kids something to aim for.
“This is the start of some of these kids’ basketball careers,” she said. “Some of these kids will grow up to be Tall Blacks and might even make it to the Olympics.”
She said that Alex Pledger, former member of the New Zealand Breakers, and Derone Raukawa, who played for the Tall Blacks, were both competitors at AIMS in their youth.
One thing she wanted to highlight was the hard work and support of the adults who make it possible for teams to come to AIMS.
“I can’t stress enough how important it is to have coaches and referees,” she said.
Although she’s no longer co-coordinator, she still makes it out to AIMS every year, working in what she calls the “engine room” to help keep everything running smoothly.
“I’ll probably keep doing it for a bit longer too, depending on what life throws at me.”
