Local San Diego League Proves Grandmothers Can Still Play Basketball

Basketball is a game that most would play for as long as they want to.

Some have seen their careers end due to injuries and their inability to keep in step with the younger generation.

But then again, some leagues have somehow worked to set standards where both men and women into basketball can still compete.

Age leveling is one of the measures.

However, rarely would anyone in the world see a bunch of elderly women aged between 80 and 90 still competing.

Such is the case for the San Diego Women’s Basketball Association, one of the largest leagues for women 50 and older, the San Diego Tribune reported.

92-year-old Marg Carl, who has been in the league since the 1990s, only learned to play basketball when she was already in her 60s.

Although she is a late bloomer, Carl gave an interesting quote that may sound familiar.

“This doesn’t die unless you let it,” Carl stated in a report from the New York Times.

It should be noted the games that Carl and other older women play are tweaked.

The games are 3-on-3 and last for 30 minutes on a half-court. 75 women are spread through 13 teams in the league, and each player is grouped by skill level.

Kirsten Cummings, a former professional basketball player, is mesmerized by the passion that these women show for the game.

“There’s this group of women who were playing and I was so mesmerized by them. They were 75 years old,” Cummings said. “I got goosebumps.”

Cummings coached for one of the league's teams, Splash, as a volunteer.

But if there is one thing that Cummings was also surprised to find is that these ladies are serious about getting better at basketball even at their age.

She recalled one instance where she slept through practice and earned the ire of one player who was in her 80s.

“I’ll tell you, I never missed practice after that,” Cummings shared. “The more I coached them the more I got to see past that facade of, you know, they’re sweet old ladies. No, these are serious senior athletes.”