Dynamo From Down East

Judy Moss, 81, Down East Senior Games

Judy Moss has been a participant in North Carolina Senior Games for 25 years, where she has participated in many activities, including multiple track events, racewalk, and her favorite, long jumps. She has been a NC Senior Games Ambassador since ‘99, and is a speaker at the yearly Ambassadors Conference, where she teaches new ambassadors what she has learned over the years about spreading the word about Senior Games.  

Originally from Tallahassee, FL, Judy and her husband Reggie moved to Tarboro in 1961 when he got a job as the PE teacher, head basketball and head football coach at the local high school. Judy worked as the school librarian until they both retired in ‘94. Her husband grew up playing sports, and even went to college on a basketball scholarship at Florida A&M University, where the two met. But Judy did not have the same opportunities. “I had no experience in my life as a  sports participant until I was 58. We had no athletics in high schools for girls, so I never had an opportunity to do any of that stuff. It was definitely new ground for me but I was looking for something to use my time with, and this fit,” Judy says.

Their daughter was the one who introduced them to Senior Games. She was a sophomore at NC State, where she volunteered at the State Finals swim meet. When their daughter returned home that fall, she brought the heat sheets from the meet for her parents to see. “We looked at the heat sheets with folks in their 80s swimming, having decent qualifying times, so we decided to check it out,” Judy explained. Judy and Reggie decided to each choose three events to try their first year. “We were totally sold on it. Every year we added more events, added something else we hadn’t done. And we kept challenging ourselves.”

“I tell people all the time,” she says, “this program is the best thing I have done for myself since I retired, because it made me conscious of staying healthy, staying active, doing things that I had never done before. It's just been a winner for me all along.” Her favorite memory of Senior Games is being torchbearer along with her husband at the 2015 State Finals Celebration of the Games. It’s a particularly special memory for Judy, and many in the Senior Games community, as it was Reggie’s last State Finals before he passed away the next year. 

Judy continues to participate, stay active, and inspire others to participate and be healthy. “I'm just proud of being able to continue doing this, at the level that I've been able to continue doing it, for as many years as I've continued to do it.” She is also proud of the people she has reached and brought into the Senior Games program as an ambassador. She says, “I cannot imagine not being involved in the Senior Games program...This is the best thing for seniors that’s out there.”