Youth basketball coach Christina Mauser was recently honored in a private memorial, after dying in the same tragic helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant. According to ABC 7, close friends and family of Mauser memorialized her in a service that took place in Huntington Beach, California on Sunday. The outlet noted that the memorial took place at in the gymnasium of Edison High School — Mauser’s alma mater — at 1 p.m.
Funeral services were held Sunday for Christina Mauser, the youth basketball coach killed alongside Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and six others. https://t.co/9eOrUmHRrg
— ABC News (@ABC) February 17, 2020
The crash that killed Bryant and Mauser also took the lives of Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna, as well as the aircraft’s pilot, and five other individuals.
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Mauser worked for Bryant’s Mamba Academy, coaching basketball, which is where the helicopter was headed at the time of the crash.
Breaking his silence on her death, Mauser’s husband Matt previously appeared on the Today show, saying, “It’s horrible. It’s horrible. I’ve got three small kids, and I’m trying to figure out how to navigate life with three kids and no mom.”
He then went on to speak about her work with the Mamba Academy, explaining, “Christina, well [Bryant] didn’t choose Christina for just any ordinary reason. She was extraordinary. She was witty, incredibly witty. Funny — funny like nobody you’ve ever met…She was warm. She was incredibly bright. She was technologically incredibly savvy, she could figure out anything.”
“My wife could break you down in two seconds, she knew how to figure you out,” he added. “She was incredibly deep.”
In a later conversation with ABC News, Matt recalled the moment he told his child that their mother had died, calling it the “hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
He also reflected on how much Mauser enjoyed being a youth basketball coach, sharing, “She loved what she did. My wife had a brilliant, brilliant eye for coaching.”
He continued, “I just want people to know how amazing my wife was. I want everybody to know not only about my wife, but about the other people on that helicopter that were amazing people. Including Gianna and KB. It was a helicopter full of incredibly talented, hardworking, sweet, kind, fantastic people.”
Following the tragic incident, a fund was set up to help support the families of the crash victims who died along with Bryant and his daughter.
Named the MambaOnThree Fund, the fund “was created to honor Team Mamba’s mantra, ‘Mamba on Three.’ It’s with that customary chant for togetherness, sisterhood and the ability to take on every challenge that this Fund was named.”
Per the fund’s website: “The MambaOnThree Fund exists to honor and support loved ones of the seven other victims involved in the tragedy that occurred on January 26, 2020. All donations to the Fund will be directed to their families.”
Those interested in donating to The MambaOnThree Fund can do so here.
