My life in sport: Raelene Castle

Raelene Castle. Photo / Brett Phibbs

When you consider Netball New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle's sporting pedigree, it is hardly surprising her career path has led to sports administration.

With her father, Bruce, being a former Kiwis rugby league captain and mother Marlene a former world champion lawn bowler with three Commonwealth Games medals to her name, it was inevitable sport would become a major part of Castle's life.

As a youngster Castle was a star on the sporting field, going on to play netball, tennis and lawn bowls to a representative level, while also excelling at basketball, volleyball and touch rugby.

Castle continues to compete in lawn bowls to a high level and is the current Auckland mixed pairs bowls champion and will compete in the national finals in a few weeks.

Prior to taking the helm at Netball New Zealand in mid-2007, Castle was head of business marketing at Telecom after holding high-ranking positions at Fuji Xerox, Southern Cross and BNZ. She believes there are definite parallels between her commercial roles and the sporting world.

What inspired you to embark on a career in sports administration?

I grew up in a sporting household where both my parents represented New Zealand and I'm a truly crazy sports fan.

I absolutely love sport, I watch it all the time, I talk about it a lot, I engage with it and I really enjoy it.

I hope that with the commercial experience I gained over the last 17-18 years I could bring some of that experience into sport and add some value with it.

When you were growing up, were there any sports you fancied yourself as a future star in?

I played tennis, netball and bowls all to a representative level when I was younger.

In the very early days I thought that I might have a chance at being a Silver Fern, but at the end of the day I just didn't grow tall enough.

Describe your job

Our job at Netball New Zealand is to have responsibility for providing Fun Ferns and Future Ferns programmes when boys and girls start playing at 5 years old, right through to delivering Silver Ferns test matches in New Zealand and the Silver Ferns to win world championships.

What's the best thing about your job?

The best thing about my job is that I get to live my passion every single day, and when I'm standing around the water cooler I can talk about netball and other sports without getting in trouble.

And the worst thing?

Probably when I'm at a Silver Ferns test match and I'm sitting next to the Prime Minister or other VIP guests and I have to be really calm and really CEO-like and not be jumping up and down and cheering for the Silver Ferns like I probably would be if I was at an All Blacks test match.

What is your proudest achievement of your sporting career?

Probably playing to a representative level in three sports - tennis, netball and bowls.

And the worst moment?

The worst moment was when I got dropped from the Howick-Pakuranga U-21 netball team midway through the season. I was only 19 and after that I was so determined to come back the following year and prove to them that I deserved to be there, and I did that.

So at the time it was the worst moment, but it was also a big learning experience for me.

What other involvement did you have with netball before becoming chief executive of Netball New Zealand?

I played for 17 years and also umpired and coached over that extended period and was such a passionate Silver Ferns fan that for me to be able to go from sitting in the stand as a fan to actually being able to be involved and engaged was just fantastic.

How much has the game changed in the short time you've been involved with the organisation?

I would say hugely. It's been a really strong period of growth for netball with the advent of the ANZ Championship, the movement to semi-professionalism for players, and the ability for fans to watch the highest level of netball in the world over an extended 17-week period delivered live on Sky Sport.

If you could change one thing about the game, what would it be?

I'd like to see eight international teams that were truly, truly competitive at an international level so that we had a much larger selection of test matches and series that we could play.

And Netball New Zealand continues to work hard to make sure that we have more and more depth at an international level.

Who was your childhood hero?

Internationally, I was a huge fan of Steffi Graf. I thought she was truly incredible not only as an athlete, with all the titles she won, but also the way she conducted herself off the court, she was always very professional.

From a New Zealand perspective it would have to be Sandra Edge, who I was fortunate enough to play against once, and she took this brilliant intercept, just plucked it out of thin air and I didn't even see her coming.

And that was very special for me to get to play against her once.

CV

Chief executive Raelene Castle joined Netball New Zealand in June 2007 after stepping down from her role at Telecom, where she was head of business marketing.

Castle has worked in the marketing, sales and communications areas for a number of leading New Zealand companies.

She also has extensive event management and sponsorship experience with involvement in the sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup 1995 and 1999, Olympics and NZOCGA 1992, 1996 and 2000 and she was a member of the marketing committee for the 2000 America's Cup.