Over 60 Women Who've Got Game

In February 2012, AFM brought you two stories about a long-standing Austin pick-up basketball game.  The first story (“Play Like a Competitive Girl—at Every Age”) gave an in-depth look at Becky Beaver, one of the women who initiated the pick-up game more than 18 years ago.  The game has grown over the years and is open to a wide variety of female players who all love to play and possess some skills (our second piece, a web exclusive, gave a look at some of the women who were playing in that particular Sunday’s pick-up game).

However, for Beaver and a few of the other women, the pick-up game isn’t enough and they also play on a Senior Olympic team as well.  The Senior Olympics are part of the National Senior Games Association (NSGA), a nonprofit arm of the United States Olympic Committee. Beaver’s team has gone to Nationals four times over eight years. Senior Olympic basketball is played every other year, on odd numbered years. The team will be going to Nationals in Cleveland in 2013, playing in the 60-64 bracket.

“Texas has a very active women’s basketball Senior Olympics,” Beaver explained. “They fielded two teams in every age bracket but one, and they fielded one team at Nationals all the way up to the 80-plus [age bracket] in women. It’s really fun to see everybody still playing.”

Fast forward to this June, and imagine how fun it was for us to realize that the amazingly fit 62-year-old woman competing in the 2012 AFM FITTEST presented by Nexersys also played with Beaver on her Senior Olympic basketball team.  Janice Wiratin completed all the AFM FITTEST events, which included knocking out several pull-ups and running a fast mile.  But what she (and Beaver) would really like is to pick up some other 60+ women to round out their Senior Olympics team.  The two women have been playing on a 50-55 team but would love to field one for their own age bracket.  They need three more players who are over 60 to round out their team.
 

Interested?

Here are requirements for and information regarding participating on Wiratin and Beaver’s Senior Olympics team:

•  Women must be age 60 or older.
• Ideally, players have had high school and/or college basketball experience.
• The team plays 1/2 court basketball.
• Practices are at Fulmore Jr. High (located on South Congress) on Sunday afternoons.
• The team has a chance to represent Texas in the National Senior Games, which is held every two years.  It was held in Houston two years ago, so it will be held out-of-state in the future.
• If interested, please send an email to Becky Beaver at bbeaver@beckybeaverlaw.com