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[Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new information about the memorial.]
A memorial service for Christina Mauser, one of the nine people killed in the helicopter crash that included Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, will be held at her alma mater, Edison High School in Huntington Beach, on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 1 p.m.
The private service will be held in the school’s gym.
A press released issued Tuesday, Feb. 11 said: Members of the Edison High School community and its alumni may contact the school at 714-962-1356 for information about acquiring tickets for the event.
Mauser, 38, served as Bryant’s top assistant coach on the Mambas youth girls basketball team. She was with a group that was en route to a game when the helicopter crashed in Calabasas on Jan. 26.
She also was a former basketball coach and teacher at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar.
The accident killed Bryant, his daughter Gianna, her teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, their parents John and Keri Altobelli and Sarah Chester and pilot Ara Zobayan.
Mauser is survived by her husband, Matt Mauser of Huntington Beach and their three young children.
Christina Mauser played basketball and volleyball at Edison, where she was the school’s female athlete of the year as a senior in 1999.
Matt Mauser is also a former Edison student-athlete and swim coach. He played water polo at Edison and later coached boys swimming at the school and at Marina High. He also launched the Orange County band Tijuana Dogs in the late 1990s.
“The Mausers have a ton of friends throughout life-guarding, the Tijuana Dogs thing, through athletics,” said Dave Carlson, an aquatics coach at Los Alamitos High who coached with Matt in the past and knows the Huntington Beach family. “Everybody loves the Mausers.”
Carlson was among nearly 1,000 supporters who attended a candlelight vigil for Christina Mauser on Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Huntington Beach Pier.
Kate Jacklin of Huntington Beach, 40, who was at Saturday’s vigil, said she struck up a friendship with Christina Mauser when the coach often visited her Starbucks walk-up store.
“She just had the best smile ever,” Jacklin said. “She’d always show up in her basketball gear every day. … It would make my morning seeing her. She’s just one of those people who was always really happy. … I’m going to miss seeing her every day.”
