H.B. resident and youth basketball coach Christina Mauser recalled as ‘radiant,’ ‘loving’ and ‘kind’ at vigil

Several hundred people gathered at Huntington Beach Pier Plaza on Saturday evening for a candlelight vigil in honor of Christina Mauser, a Huntington Beach resident, youth basketball coach and former educator who was one of nine people who died in a helicopter crash Jan. 26 in Calabasas.

“I think the crowd here tonight is a testament to how much of an impact Christina Mauser has had on so many of us and how the Mauser family is so deeply loved and cherished in this community,” family friend Riley McIntosh said. Friends, neighbors and classmates of the Mauser family and community members held flickering white candles and red gladiolus flowers.

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Girl Scouts from Sowers Middle School, which the Mausers’ oldest daughter attends, handed out candles.

“The purpose for the evening was to bring this community together to grieve, to share memories about Christina and to show the Mauser family that we’re here for them now and for the difficult road ahead of them,” McIntosh said.

“She had an infectious smile and an easygoing no-nonsense way about her,” Danae La Trobe said. “She was a radiant and loving mom and her kids’ faces lit up when they saw her. Christina loved her family so much; when she spoke with [her husband] Matt and the kids, you could tell their home was full of love.”

Mauser was assistant coach to Kobe Bryant for the retired basketball star’s Mamba Sports Academy. Mauser died when the helicopter she was traveling in along with coaches, players and parents of a girls’ club basketball team she coached crashed while en route to a tournament in Thousand Oaks.

Mauser coached a girls’ 13-and-under team with Bryant, who also died in the crash along with his daughter Gianna and fellow teammates Alyssa Altobelli, Payton Chester, Alyssa’s parents, John and Keri, Payton’s mother, Sarah, and pilot Ara Zobayan.

Mauser, 38, had deep roots in Huntington Beach. She was a standout defensive basketball player at Edison High School, where she graduated in 1999, and began teaching at Pegasus School, a private elementary and middle school, after earning a degree from Cal State Fullerton. A mother of three children, she also was wife to Matt Mauser, a Huntington Beach native, fellow educator and entertainer, whose band, Tijuana Dogs, is a favorite among locals.

Along with being a skilled and attentive coach, friends and family said Christina was a devoted mom to her children, Penny, 11, Tom, 9, and Ivy, 3.

“My kids and I are devastated,” Matt wrote on Facebook the day of the crash. “We lost our beautiful wife and mom.”

“I will always remember Christina as a loving, happy, funny and kind person. She always had a way of cheering you up when you fell down. I’m so glad Penny got that trait from her,” Addison La Trobe, a friend of Penny’s, said at the vigil.

When the middle-schooler was overcome by tears, her mother, Danae La Trobe, stepped in to read from what Addison had written: “I want her to know that I always have Penny’s back and I will be there for her no matter what.”

“It was sad to lose someone, especially Christina. She was one of my best friends, and she was the best that you could ever have,” said Sophia Campagna, another friend and classmate of the Mausers’ daughter.

The Mausers were married in 2006, according to family members, and the next year Christina joined Matt at Harbor Day School in Newport Beach, where she taught physical education and coached girls basketball. Together, they led the eighth-grade team to its first championship, according to the school’s magazine.

Harbor Day also was where Bryant first met the Mausers and noticed Christina’s coaching ability. Christina agreed to coach for Bryant at Mamba. She left Harbor Day in 2018 and shifted her focus to managing the Tijuana Dogs and on Mamba, where she also coached WNBA clinics.

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, Matt Mauser remembered his wife as “kind,” “funny” and “relentless.”

“I miss the little things; that’s the hardest,” he said.

“It’s times like this that the community is the strongest and comes together for the families and friends who have been been touched by this tragedy,” Huntington Beach Mayor Lyn Semeta said Saturday. “The Mauser family has so many ties to Huntington Beach ... and we are just really happy to be able to facilitate this.”

An online fundraiser to support the Mauser family had raised more than $280,000 as of Saturday. For more information, go to gofundme.com/f/mauser-family-support-fund.

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