Off Their Rockers.(aging healthy)(Brief Article)

These grandmas prove that age doesn't matter when it comes to their competitive nature

When Mavis Albin was a teenager in the 1950s, there was only one sport offered to girls-- basketball. Although she was on the team and loved the game, Albin found it lacking, because the rules were altered to make it more "ladylike." .

"It was a very boring game," she said. "You could only dribble one time and the guards did not shoot." The slightest physical contact with another player was considered a foul. Fortunately, times have changed. Today's girls are offered as many opportunities in sports as boys, and the rules aren't modified for the more "genteel" sex. And things are different for Albin, too.

Eight years ago, at the age of 56, she was invited to play in three-on-three basketball in the Senior Olympics. "It changed my whole life," said Albin. "That old competitive spirit returned."

A CHANGE OF PACE

Prior to joining the Senior Olympics, Albin lived a rather sedentary life. "I did not exercise at all," she said. "When I thought about exercise, I would be so exhausted I'd go lay down!" Albin admits she didn't watch her diet or take any vitamins. Today, however, it's a whole new ball game. Albin is the captain of the Louisiana Tigerettes 50+ Hi-Tops, a team which plays fast-paced, half-court games that follow all the NCAA rules. So far they have an undefeated record of 58-0.

What's Albin's secret to remaining flexible and athletic? She goes to the YMCA three times a week to exercise, and she takes a daily multivitamin and a glucosamine/chondroitin combination supplement for her joints. "I'm motivated not only for myself, but for my team," she said. "We're just like any other grandmas ... we just use [basketball] as a release from worldly anxieties. We may be grandmas, but we like to think we fit into the 21st century.