[ad_1]
NBA great Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were just two of the nine people who lost their lives in a helicopter crash in Southern California Sunday.
The flight, which left from Orange County, California, was headed north when it crashed around 10 a.m. local time in Calabasas.
Bryant was on his way to a game at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks along with others connected to the basketball program.
As the world grieves the Los Angeles Lakers legend, here’s what we know so far about the others killed.
John Altobelli
College baseball coach John Altobelli — whose daughter was a basketball teammate of Gianna Bryant — was on the helicopter at the time of the accident.
Altobelli worked at Orange Coast College for 27 years and was known to be a mentor to players, according to the school.
“He truly personified what it means to be a baseball coach,” the school’s athletic director, Jason Kehler, said in a statement on Sunday. “The passion that he put into the game, but more importantly his athletes, was second to none – he treated them like family.”
“Our deepest condolences go out to the Altobelli family during this time of tragedy,” Kehler said.
“We have lost a member of our OCC family, and our hearts are broken,” the college president, Angelica Suarez, added in a statement. “Coach Altobelli was a giant on our campus – a beloved teacher, coach, colleague and friend. This is a tremendous loss for our campus community.”
“John Altobelli was a great coach and man,” tweeted Barry Faulkner, a sportswriter at the Daily Pilot in Southern California. “I worked closely with him for more than a dozen years covering his OCC program. Huge heart. Great sense of humor and passion for the game, his players and his family. RIP Alto. Truly a legend.”
Keri Altobelli
The Altobelli family also confirmed the death of John Altobelli’s wife, Keri Altobelli.
Alyssa Altobelli
Alyssa Altobelli, one of the Altobellis’ daughters, was also on the flight, which left no survivors.
Alyssa was a basketball teammate of 13-year-old Gianna Bryant, according to People Magazine.
John and Keri Altobelli are survived by two other children, son JJ and daughter Alexis, according to the Brewster Whitecaps, a Cape Cod baseball team for which John Altobelli was a coach.
Christina Mauser
Christina Mauser was a mother, wife and a girls’ basketball coach.
As a top assistant coach of the Mamba girls’ basketball team, she coached Gianna Bryant and Alyssa Altobelli, another coach told The Los Angeles Times.
“My wife had a brilliant, brilliant eye for coaching,” Mauser’s husband, Matthew Mauser, told ABC News Monday. “I was so proud of her. It was amazing watching her in her element.”
“As good as she was with X’s and O’s, she was also that good with how to treat the girls,” he added. “They would confide in her.”
This May would have marked the Mausers’ 15th wedding anniversary.
Through tears, he told ABC News, “I love my wife. With everything I had.”
Payton Chester
Payton Chester, an eighth grader at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, California, was killed on the flight.
“We are a community in mourning,” William Moseley, the head of the school, said in a letter to students and families. “This is an unimaginable loss for the Chester family and the entire St. Margaret’s community.”
Sarah Chester
Payton Chester’s mother, Sarah Chester, was with her on that flight.
Sarah Chester was on the board of trustees at her daughter’s school.
She is survived by her husband and two sons.
Todd Schmidt, Payton Chester’s former elementary school principal, said Sarah and Payton Chester “were genuine, kind-hearted, and caring…to the staff, to other families…and yes, especially to me.”
“While the world mourns the loss of a dynamic athlete and humanitarian, I mourn the loss of two people just as important,” Schmidt wrote on Facebook. “Their impact was just as meaningful, their loss will be just as keenly felt, and our hearts are just as broken.”
ABC News has not yet confirmed the identity of the ninth victim.
ABC News’ T. J. Holmes, Sabina Ghebremedhin and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link