After various Kaikohe basketball groups stumbled upon the amazing boroughs project courts in Auckland, they decided that their community needed it too. 

It all started back in 2017, when the children of Kaikohe were offered an opportunity to play the curtain raiser game for the NZ Breakers. Basketball has been rapidly growing here in the North and this was a lifetime opportunity not to be missed. 

Prior to the game, they had some down time at the North Shore boroughs outdoor court where everyone young and old fell in love with the concept of a free (for use) outdoor court.

After pondering the idea for some time and listening to the continued playground chatter of this amazing court, an online petition was put together and along with Renee Reilly, the main driver of the project, had over 1000 signatures within four days - that was the first tick for the project.

The harder yards began with submitting a proposal to the local community board (in May 2018) requesting their support and approval to build a full-sized basketball court at the local skate park.  Finally in August (2018), approval was gained – second tick.

Sport Northland’s Community Connector, Cheryl Smith, helped with engaging the Kaikohe Community and Youth Centre Trust Board as the funding umbrella for the project - this was the third big tick. "KCYC (Kaikohe Community and Youth Centre Trust Board) have been nothing short of amazing says Renee Reilly who also goes onto explain “they are so supportive of their community and the youth and went over and above to help get this project off the ground.”

Following many hours of drafting and submitting funding applications, $105,000 has been secured to build the basketball court. This was the projects fourth tick to finally have all applications submitted and fully approved.

“It has been quite a journey. It has been a definite patience testing exercise; I kid you not

And now we have movement!!! Today we have a concrete slab by next weekend we will have a complete court with a great big merry Christmas to our humbled town and the far north.  We could not have made it this far without the support and generosity of our community and sponsors” says Reilly.