Until a few months ago, 94-year-old Grace Larsen played in a weekly senior women’s basketball league as part of the San Diego Splash. The team is made up of women in their 80s and 90s. Larsen has been a mainstay on the team for 14 years and is affectionately known as “Money in the Bank” for her prowess as a shooter.
When the coronavirus pandemic suspended league play in March, Larsen became committed to staying fit and keeping her game sharp.
“We’ve got to be ready to get back to basketball, so we better be active,” Larsen said. Throughout quarantine, she has gone for daily walks and often performs basketball drills outside.
“[I do] dribbling. A lot of dribbling. Between the legs. That kind of thing,” Larsen explained.
Larsen, a former municipal court deputy clerk in San Diego, always enjoyed sports but didn’t have the opportunity to play organized athletics in her youth because they didn’t exist for girls at the time. Instead, she played football in the street or basketball in gym class.
Larsen was 80 — the minimum age for the Splash — when she joined the San Diego Senior Women’s Basketball Association (SWBA). The league has since become an integral part of her life.
“SWBA is a big family,” she said.
During quarantine, the league’s 140 players have kept in touch through emails, social media and phone calls.
The seven members of the Splash even got a special assist from their coach, CJ Moloney, who put together a video of basketball drills the players could do safely at their homes.
“I just wanted to reach out, get them moving and feel connected to something that was already their norm,” said Moloney, who has coached the Splash for the past five years and plays in the senior league as well. “We’ve been talking on the phone pretty much every day, and they’re doing great.”
Splash player Marge Carl said she appreciates Moloney’s check-ins by phone.
“Our coach is extraordinary because she cares so much about us,” said Carl, a retired social worker. “She gives us over 100 percent.”
Carl is always game to challenge herself physically and mentally. To celebrate her 90th birthday last summer, she jumped out of an airplane, and during stay-at-home orders, she’s been walking upward of 40 minutes a day. On rainy days, she has taken to climbing the stairs in her apartment complex to get her exercise in.
“I don’t want to lose any stamina because that takes a bit of work when you lose it at my age,” Carl said.
But what everyone on the Splash is looking forward to is the day the players can reunite on the hardwood.
“It’s going to be heaven,” Carl said. “There is a horizon ahead.”
ESPN writer, soccer commentator and host Julie Foudy contributed to this story.
