Granny Basketball arrives in Copperas Cove
By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
The Copperas Cove Heat Wave Granny Basketball League team played against the Fort Worth Cowtown Heifers Saturday morning at the Crossroads High School gym on Avenue E, taking home the bragging rights for their first game with a score of 55-22.
The Copperas Cove Heat Wave team falls under the umbrella of the Copperas Cove Parks and Recreation as an adult sport and is the City’s first official Granny Basketball League Inc. team.
Granny Basketball was founded in 2005 by Barb McPherson Trammell in Iowa as a new and fun way to exercise, following the old rules of 1920s women’s basketball. These rules include playing on three courts, only being allowed to dribble two times, no physical contact and no running or jumping. “Hurrying” is allowed, though. The players, who have to be 50 years old or older, wear a uniform that looks typical of the 1920s era, with bloomers, middy blouses and knee socks to represent each team’s identity. If skin that would typically be covered during the 1920s shows, it results in a “flesh foul”.
The Copperas Cove Heat Wave players wear a white blouse and black bottoms, with maroon and yellow socks. Their opponents from Saturday’s game wore black bottoms and purple tops with black and white cow print socks.
The Copperas Cove Leader-Press previously covered a Granny Basketball game at the Copperas Cove YMCA back in 2019, reporting that that time there were close to 400 players on 32 teams in nine states. Today, there are more than 600 players on 52 teams in 10 states in the United States of America plus 1 team in Canada. There are 14 teams in Iowa; 11 in Kansas; 11 in Texas; 4 in Oklahoma; 3 in Missouri; 3 in California; 2 in Minnesota; 2 in Wisconsin; and 1 each in Louisiana, Arizona and Toronto, Canada.
An Iowa State Tournament has been held annually since 2005, and in 2017, Granny Basketball became a new event in the Kansas Senior Games, according to the Granny Basketball website. The first National Tournament was held in Minneapolis in 2008, and the location has bounced around between Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kansas, Wisconsin and Iowa. This year, the 2025 National Tournament will be hosted by the Cowtown Heifers here in Texas, on July 11-13 at Game On Sports Complex in Ft. Worth, TX.
The Texas teams include the Copperas Cove Heatwave, the Killeen G-Forces, the Round Rock Rockettes, the Six Shooters (Waco), the Bayou Ballers (Houston), the H.O.T. (Heart of Texas) Chili Peppers (Killeen), the Cowtown Heifers (Fort Worth), the South Texas Sass (Katy), the Texas 2 Steps (Conroe), The Texas Fire Ants (Georgetown), and the Texas Old Glories (Harker Heights).
Tammy Ross and Selista Dursey are the team captains for the Heatwave. This is Dursey’s second year playing Granny Basketball, but she played women’s basketball in high school and college and also played on an All-Army team. Ross played for women’s basketball in middle school, high school and college and also played professional basketball in Europe, playing in three different countries. Ross said she had also played AU basketball in between, spanning approximately 30 years as a basketball player. Last year was Ross’s first year playing Granny Basketball, she said.
Dursley said that the hardest part for her to adapt to in Granny Basketball was the rule on dribbling and having to limit it to two dribbles before needing to pass or shoot.
Ross said she had to adjust her instinct of wanting to jump to make the hoops, especially since she is taller.
“When I played ball, I was a jump shoot, and I played outside,” Ross said.
Each player has their own reasons for joining the Granny Basketball League but staying active and making friends are the common reasons.
“I like the fact that I could stay in shape and stay active even in my 60s,” Dursley said.
“One of the main reasons I did was because I’m a senior, and I didn’t really have many friends, so this was the way for me to meet new people, and not just my teammates, but the other team as well,” Ross said. “So, I just wanted to have that friendship, because when you become a senior, you’re kind of like by yourself, isolated, so all of this getting to come together really helps.”
The players all come from different walks of life, and different places in life, with some being retired and others still working. Dursley said she works in the school system and enjoys getting to know the other players and learning more about them and what they do.
Heatwaves Coach Alisa Jackson said that this was the very first game for the Heatwave, which is a brand new team.
“This is our first year,” Jackson said. “We’re in the middle of building, so that’s why you see a lot of talking on the court, so they players can understand how it’s played.”
Jackson said it was a relief to finally have the first game played and won.
“We just look forward to improving and getting better, especially better with the rules and the regulations and knowing all the teams,” Jackson said.
The Heatwaves will play the Round Rock Rockettes at the Crossroads High School gym on February 8, 2025 at 10 a.m. They will also play the Georgetown Fire Ants at the gym on May 10, 2025 at 10 a.m.
The plan is for the Heatwave to play in the National Tournament, Ross said.