Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester played with Kobe Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter. They all died in the crash.
The victims of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna included two of her basketball teammates and their family members.
Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Sarah Chester were on their way to a tournament at the Mamba Sports Academy, co-founded by Kobe, who coached his daughter’s team.
Altobelli’s parents, John and Keri, were along for the ride, along with Payton’s mom, Sarah, basketball coach Christine Mauser, and the pilot of the Sikorsky S-76b Ara Zobayan.
Zobayan received his commercial pilot certificate in 2007, according to the FAA. Jared Yochim, a fellow pilot who called Zobayan his friend, wrote in a Facebook post that he was “not your typical egotistical helicopter pilot like most of us honestly are.” “Ara was an incredible pilot, instructor pilot, charter pilot and truly a great man,” he said.
Friends have identified the pilot as
Ara Zobayan. He taught aspiring heli pilots to fly and was very much loved in the aviation community. They wrote “rest easy as you take your final flight to heaven.”@KTLA #KobeBryant pic.twitter.com/8pQh9eNJTk— Christina Pascucci (@ChristinaKTLA) 27 January 2020
Mauser was an assistant coach for the Mamba team. She had also worked as a coach at Harbor Day School, where Bryant’s older daughter, Natalia, had been a student.
“My kids and I are devastated. We lost our beautiful wife and mom today in a helicopter crash,” her husband, Tijuana Dogs drummer Matt Mauser, wrote on Facebook after Sunday’s tragedy.
Payton Chester was a student at Harbor View Elementary School in Corona del Mar, where the principal, Todd Schmidt, payed tribute to her and her mother on Facebook, writing, “This family made such a huge impact at Harbor View…they were genuine, kind-hearted, and caring…to the staff, to other families…and yes, especially to me.”
Payton’s brother, Riley, shared his grief on Instagram, writing, “Rest In Peace to the most amazing Mother and sister. I love you Pay Pay and Mom RIP.”
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The Altobelli family had grown close to the Bryants through the girls’ basketball team. John, the head baseball coach at Orange Coast College, never missed a chance to see Alyssa play under the tutelage of a legend.
“He loved going to every single practice, because it’s Kobe Bryant. So you’re seeing that guy coach. And he’s seeing him coach his daughter in a sport that she loved to play. He didn’t miss many practices and he loved going out and Kobe would talk to him and stuff,” Nate Johnson, the assistant baseball coach at Orange Coast, told The Daily Beast.
“He put it in baseball terms,” Johnson added. “He was like, ‘What if Derek Jeter was teaching your son how to play baseball? Are you going to miss his practices or are you going to be at every single one?’
“He and Kobe had a special thing just because they did coach and play and understood sports and I think Kobe saw that in Alto and that’s why that relationship was able to kind of take off.”
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Before the Orange Coast baseball team went to the state final four in 2018, Altobelli invited Kobe to give the team a surprise pep talk.
“He had all the guys sit in the third base dugout which you’re able to drive behind that one. And Kobe parked his blacked-out Range Rover back there and he was able to walk out without anyone seeing him. The guys were floored and super excited,” Johnson said.
Jason Kehler, the Orange Coast athletic director, told The Daily Beast that John Altobelli was “an amazing coach” who “personified everything that you would want from a baseball coach, and a co-worker in general.”
His teams won four state championship in the last 10 seasons and many more conference championships, and he was just named the American Baseball Coaches Association Coach of the Year.
After news of the coach’s death broke, the school opened up the field so team members and alumni could be together.
Kehler said Altobelli’s brother Tony, who is the college’s sports information director, addressed the group.
“He echoed what one of the assistant coaches said, that John was really excited about this team and that it was going to be really tough but we were going to take it day by day,” he said. “And that was how we were going to get through this.”
Sammy Doucette, the Orange Coast College women’s basketball coach, who had coached Altobelli at Mamba, said the girl’s friendly vibe was what she would remember.
“She always smiled,” Doucette said.
She called Bryant a mentor and idol.
“Of course, everything he said was valuable to me,” she told The Daily Beast via text message. “Even if it wasn’t about basketball. It was important because he was Kobe. He treated the players, parents, coaches like family. I had the opportunity to learn from the best. Not everyone gets that opportunity, not even close.”
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Bless Your Heart!
