Christina Mauser's Story

Mother. Wife. Sister. Niece. Daughter. Teacher. Basketball Coach. Band Manager...and so much more. ​

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Christina Michelle (Patterson) Mauser was born June 26, 1981 to Tita Ramil and Marty Patterson. Sister to Matthew, Jason and Sean; she was the only girl of seven grandchildren. 

An overachiever from the very beginning, Christina was walking by nine months old, and skiing at two and a half years old. Spunky and outgoing, other children gravitated towards her. She always made friends easily.

Christina was beautiful, fierce, talented and competitive, yet steady. She was humble, caring, and a loving daughter, and you could always count on her to be supportive or help out with anything. She was hilarious, making everyone around her laugh and feel at home. There was never a dull moment when spending time with her. She played an important role in her family that is greatly missed today. 

 

Christina attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach, where she was a great player, teammate and friend. She was an outstanding soccer and volleyball player, but was a superstar basketball player who won her high school's Hall of Fame award two years in a row, was a four-year Varsity Letter winner, won Edison High School's Athlete of the Year in 1999 and was an All-League Award winner, among many other achievements.

 

Christina's leadership and court presence were just as big as her personality. She never gave less than 100%, and demanded the same from her teammates, as she led them to a Sunset League Championship her senior year of high school. She led with compassion and a healthy dose of competition, helping others in any way she could. Her high school basketball coach described her as "athletic, quick, could jump, driven, intense, had a killer instinct, was a lock-down defender and a winner."

 

She graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a degree in childhood development, and on May 6, 2005 Christina married singer/songwriter Matthew Mauser. She became the brains behind the growth of her husband’s musical success, both with his band, the Tijuana Dogs, and with his Sinatra-style shows. The two also taught together at Harbor Day School, she in P.E. and he in Spanish. They both excelled as teachers, and they grew together more when they became parents, flourishing as a strong household. Family vacations, singing and dancing together, they thrived as a connected family. Christina lived to be an amazing wife and mother to Penny, Thomas and Ivy. She loved being a wife and mother. She was a strong force in the family but at the same time they knew how much they were loved and cherished. She burned both ends of the candle without a word of frustration or exhaustion; an amazing feat to behold.  

Christina’s career reached new levels when she became assistant coach for Kobe Bryant's Mamba Sports Academy. “Kobe saw what an amazing mind Christina had for basketball, and how good she was with the kids,” her husband says. “He brought her on as the assistant coach for Gianna Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy team to teach the kids defense, and they called her the ‘Mother of Defense,— MOD.’ They were a family. They all really cared about each other. Kobe was dedicated and so was my wife — they were dedicated to these girls.” 

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Christina’s charisma would draw you in. She was powerful. She was funny. She was adventurous; a strong beautiful woman of the best character.

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Christina was 38 years old, a devoted wife, mother and assistant basketball coach (and so much more), when she died on January 26, 2020 along with Bryant and seven others in a helicopter crash while traveling to a basketball tournament at the great former Lakers’ Los Angeles facility.

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She is survived by her husband, Matt Mauser, and their three young children. 

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