Winner 1: Juliann Te Young
Juliann is the heart and soul of gymnastics at Bucklands Beach Intermediate and simply radiates positivity. She speads positive vibes throughout her team, the whole gymnasium and the rest of the school.

Juliann inspires gymnasts of all abilities to strive for their best and creates an incredible team culture with her passion and dedication. Every day at AIMS she has spent long hours on the gym floor not only cheering on her athletes, but all competitors from other schools with endless smiles , encouragement and fist bumps. She constantly lifts the team, helping them overcome fears and supporting them when performance mistakes inevitably happen. After all this, she'll be the first one on the sidelines with her team motivating our other school teams. She has made AIMS such an amazing experience that her students will remember this forever and keep spreading the positive vibes.

Winner 2: Julia Comer

​​​​​​​Julia Comer radiates positivity in everything she does. She leads with kindness, selflessness, and an incredible energy that lifts everyone around her. Julia inspires our kids to believe the best in themselves and in others, encouraging them to always play with heart and to represent their families and school with pride.

Julia truly embodies what it means to spread positive vibes, and we are so grateful for the joy, encouragement, and inspiration she brings to our team and community. Her love and passion for the game shines through, not just in her coaching, but in the way she models sportsmanship and respect. Every single game she has taken the time to award “Player of the Game” to someone on the opposing team - a beautiful example of celebrating others and building connection beyond her own team.

Julia’s words are always positive, uplifting, and encouraging - both to her players and to those on the other side of the field. She creates an environment where kids feel inspired, supported, and proud to give their best.

Winner 1: Matea Toeleiu

Matea is the true definition of positive vibes on the sidelines. Always smiling, encouraging, and uplifting, she creates an environment where our children feel supported, valued, and confident to bring their best selves to the competition.

Her voice carries more than cheers – it carries belief. Matea reminds our athletes that effort, teamwork, and joy matter just as much as results. She’s not just cheering for her own, but for every child, making each player feel seen and celebrated.

We are so grateful for her steady presence and her gift of positivity. With Matea on the sidelines, the whole team feels like they’re winning.

Standing in the pooring rain cheering every try, congratulating both teams after a tough match, or reminding the kids to “hold your heads high, you gave it your best,” Matea’s positivity never wavers. She is often the first to clap for an opposition player’s good move, showing our children that respect and sportsmanship matter.

Winner 2: Karen McCulloch and Yasmin Alberts

Amazing netball referees!!!

Both referees were clear and consistent. They gave great feedback to the girls. One of our girls is deaf and they were fantastic in giving clear calls and hand signals. Was super helpful and consistent.

Winner 3: Jo Edwards

Jo is an awesome vibe for the Indoor Bowls! She's not only a parent of our Tga Intermediate team but also involved in organising things behind the scenes at Regional level, particularly for junior bowls members. Jo often passes pearls of wisdom, encourages positive and fair sportsmanship and helps to character build the participants, regardless what school they're from. She welcomes other parents to get involved and learn about this ever growing code.

Jo has a great sense of humour and helps players to remain humble and feel proud, no matter what the outcome.

Winner 1: Rich James

Rich is the coach for our football team.

Rich is so dedicated and a positive influence on our kids. Rich is completing his work week before 7am and after 4pm each day this week so that he can still take our kids to Aims.

Coming from a small town, a bunch of our kids hadn’t ever played football before this year. Rich has been so welcoming and encouraging to our new kids, and our team is a credit to his positivity. They started the year with big losses, but the kids stay positive and have improved dramatically. Rich allows them to just enjoy the sport and work on improving themselves each game. Thank you Rich for everything you do for our kids.

Winner 2: Coach of Kaitao 5x5 Boys Team

This Coach impressed our team whaanau right from when we first saw him and his team on Day One (when they were waiting on the sideline to go on next), to when we actually played against them today.

He was friendly, warm and encouraging, making connection a priority and the team gave a similar vibe too.

Winner 1: Rosie

I would like to nominate Rosie (rock climbing manager) from Whakatāne Intermediate for recognition.

Rosie noticed straight away that my daughter Sophie was extremely anxious and feeling lost at the rock climbing competition. We were the only competitors from Tamatea Intermediate, and since we don’t even have a public climbing wall to practice on, Sophie was completely out of her comfort zone.

Rosie took the time to talk to both Sophie and us as parents, helping to calm our nerves and making a huge difference to how we all felt. She and her Whakatāne team went out of their way to include Sophie, cheer her on, and give her the strength to keep going despite her nerves.

This was especially meaningful as Sophie had only just been given the all-clear from a broken shoulder four weeks ago. Having that support gave her the confidence to persevere, and she came away from the competition smiling, with new friends and wonderful memories.

We cannot thank Rosie enough. Her kindness and encouragement truly transformed our AIMS experience and meant the world to our family.

From the moment the rock climbing competition began, Rosie expressed positive vibes throughout, not only with her own team but also with others like ours. She was constantly cheering and encouraging kids to keep going and to give things a go, even when it seemed impossible to them. You could hear her cheers from afar, and wherever Rosie was, she spread positivity and support. 

It was truly heart-warming to see a manager not only cheering for her own school but also stepping up for other children who needed that extra bit of encouragement.

Winner 2: Skarn (Kahi) Hokai

Skarn has created the first ever Rugby girls 7s team to come out of Kaitaia - possibly even Northland after 6 kids (5 boys and a girl) with number six being the youngest and a girl this is his first year (after 30 years of coaching boys) to coach girls - he taught many girls how to play the game - and empowered them to be confident they have been training since March and although they arent the best they have passion and are keen and he’s done an amazing job. Only 2 of the 11 girls in our team have been to Tauranga so it’s such a wonderful trip and he’s so good at making it an awesome experience for them.

He has a team meeting every morning and every night - they talk about highs and lows of the game - he teaches them about friends being fountains and drains and the girls need to be fountains - lifting each other up - he doesn’t put pressure but celebrates the little wins as a team, he encourages the girls to be great. Our girls feel empowered and proud to play rugby - we have a team rule if you put others down or bully you get stood down from the team for the day thankfully it hasn’t been enforced - he also brought a speaker and microphone and encourages the girls to sing - today we lost both games by 40 plus points but he made sure to tell each girl what they did well and they are all happy and positive.

The Positive Vibes Only Champion Awards celebrate our sideline supporters.  Whether cheering from the sidelines, coaching from the bench or supporting behind the scenes, these are the coaches, managers parents, teachers and supporters who create a positive environment where Zespri AIMS Games athletes thrive, feel supported and bring their best selves to the competition.

There are multiple Positive Vibes Only Champion Awards up for grabs throughout the event, and nominations can be made via the Zespri AIMS Games app.

Voting opens at 9:00am each day of the event and closes at 3:00pm (note: voting closes at 12:00 Noon on Friday). The winners will be announced at 5:00pm daily via the Zespri AIMS Games app and website.