Merry Mothers Hoop It Up With Daughters in Chatsworth League

Randi Halpert spent many years on the sidelines watching her two daughters, ages 12 and 11, play basketball.

The game looked like fun, but Halpert never imagined she’d ever get on the court. Basketball was for athletic and coordinated youngsters, she thought.

But in March the Mason Park girls’ basketball league started a league for the players’ mothers. The league was created after a mothers-against-daughters game at the end of the last winter session.

The mothers beat the 9- and 10-year-olds, 21-20.

“They had so much fun playing that they said they’d be interested in doing it every week,” said league founder Lindsay Amstutz, a former basketball player at Monroe High.

Now 21 mothers practice every Wednesday night at Chatsworth High. Games are played Sunday afternoons at Mason Park in Chatsworth.

Amstutz and other volunteer coaches have taught the moms the game’s basic rules and helped them with playing skills.

Even those who haven’t caught on quickly enjoy the sport. And most agree it’s a great workout.

“It’s like the jazzercise of the 1990s,” Amstutz said. “A lot of them had never even touched a basketball, but they’ve come a long way.”

The moms play four 12-minute quarters of full-court basketball each week. Many of them are cheered on by their children.

“It’s exhausting,” Halpert said. “It’s wonderful exercise and it sure beats doing aerobics.”

Since she began playing, Halpert has a better understanding of basketball. She used to sit in the stands and yell coaching tips to her daughters.

Now she just watches.

“I have respect for them,” Halpert said. “It’s not as easy as it looks. I sit there very quietly now because I know how hard it is.”

Her daughters, Stephanie, 12, and Jennifer, 11, think it’s great that their mom is in on the action, and sometimes offer tips.

“They continue to tell me to use the backboard,” Halpert said.

Amstutz’s 45-year-old mother, Karen, also plays. Like Little League baseball coaches who are hardest on their own kids, Amstutz says she’s extra tough on her mother.

Karen, however, isn’t the only one who has struggled on the court. Most of the women have had one common problem.

“There are a lot of traveling violations,” Amstutz said. “Also, the nails and jewelry were a problem at first, but we haven’t had too many broken nails.”

Amstutz is proud that there has never been a timeout called for a broken nail.

“That’s pretty incredible,” she said.

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Amstutz helped start the girls’ league at Mason Park in the summer of 1994 because she had nowhere to play basketball.

She participated in ballet as a youngster and didn’t start playing basketball until the 10th grade. She wanted to improve quickly in order to make the team at Monroe her junior year.

“My dad had helped coach my brother at Mason Park, so I knew the people there and asked why they didn’t have a girls’ league,” said Amstutz, who will be a freshman at Stanford this fall. “They said they would if I could prove there was enough interest.”

Amstutz recruited 45 girls to form five teams.

By the winter session 80 girls had joined, and the following summer there were 125.

Now the league has 200 girls and 20 teams.

Amstutz runs the league and writes its newsletter. Her duties include conducting a player draft, finding volunteer coaches and purchasing uniforms and hiring referees.

“I wanted to give girls a chance,” Amstutz said. “Now it’s great to see girls excited about basketball after the Olympics.”

The cost is $70 for a three-month season. The fee includes uniforms, trophies and coaching.

Information: 818-700-9017.

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LA Fitness in Woodland Hills will host Body Jam on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.

The all-day event will feature classes in circuit training, aerobics, in-line skating, Tae boxing and power cycling.

A two-hour aerobics competition is scheduled beginning at 4:30 p.m for teams of two to five people. They will be judged on creativity, enthusiasm, musical interpretation, synchronization and creative use of platform.

Information: 818-347-8330.

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La Canada Flintridge and Thousand Oaks were recently among 30 areas awarded Trail Town USA awards by the American Hiking Society.

The AHS acknowledged areas working toward the goals of Trails for All-Americans, a program that strives to bring hiking trails to within 15 minutes of every American’s home or workplace.