Eastern Iowa Granny Basketball team continues to dispel misconceptions about aging with latest win

CEDAR RAPIDS — Members of The Cedar Rapids Sizzlers may not be your average grandmothers, but they are exceptional Grannies.

The team of 12, ranging in age from 53 to 74, prevailed in an overtime nail-biter against longtime rival Harpers Ferry Fireflies at the National Granny Championship Basketball Tournament earlier this month in Kansas City, Kan. It’s the team’s fourth national title win since 2015, and the second year in which they’ve won both a national and an Iowa tournament.

But they’re doing more than winning.

For many women getting older, “granny” is a word avoided or used with caution in a society rife with the stigma of aging. In Eastern Iowa, this team is part of a national sport with 28 teams reclaiming the word as they redefine what it means to mature.

What does Granny mean to them?

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For some players, “granny” simply means “experienced.” For others, it takes on a very active meaning.

“She’s a spitfire, somebody who does not sit in a rocking chair. Or, if she does, she does a lot of things,” team captain Diana Siguenza of Cedar Rapids said. “To me, she’s a rebel.”

Siguenza, who joined the team not long after it started in 2005, said a granny isn’t immune to the pressures of getting older. But she fights for each win with determination, despite it all.

“It’s not like we don’t have aches and pains. We all have them,” she said. “But you forget about them when you play.”

For one younger team member, who has taken efforts to avoid the connotations of “granny,” it’s about busting the stereotype for those over 50.

“I try to dispel what people think about ‘granny’ — that you have to be older and not mobile,” said Michelle Kraft, 56, of North Liberty.

How it’s played

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You don’t have to be a grandmother or mother to play Granny Basketball — just over age 50. With 330 players in the United States and Canada, the game is played six-on-six with people from ages 50 to 92.

It started in 2005 with three Iowa teams in Lansing, Center Point and Cedar Rapids.

Founded by Barbara Trammel of Lansing, Iowa, the game was structured to showcase the popular format enjoyed by girls for generations before 1993, when the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union voted unanimously to end it. The six-on-six format was especially popular in rural areas, Siguenza said, where girls pitched in on chores.

“The girls were expected to do chores just like the boys. The whole excuse that women couldn’t handle sports was nullified by that fact,” she said.

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Unlike other basketball franchises, players only get two dribbles in Granny Basketball, which tends to make games go faster. Passes help teams advance down the court.

Jumping, running, touching opponents and blocking someone’s shot before the ball leaves their hands also are not allowed. But even if players can’t run, they know “how to hurry,” the Sizzlers said.

Any falls — even a hand touching the floor of the court — constitutes a “granny down,” which requires a player to leave the court until the play is complete, to ensure their safety.

Three-point shots, called “granny shots” in the game, are thrown underhand.

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“There’s not a lot of granny shots, but when one is made, it’s great,” Kraft said. “It’s a fun league — we have a good time.”

A typical season starts in January with a jamboree at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids, the Sizzlers’ home court, and ends in July or August with the national championship. The team’s Eastern League travels across Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin to play teams in the lead-up to the Iowa Senior Games, which is unofficially considered the Iowa Championship for Granny Basketball.

Each team also raises funds for a good cause with their functions. The Sizzlers donate their proceeds to Horizons Meals on Wheels

Why they play

All but one of the Sizzlers played basketball in high school, but they returned to the sport for various reasons.

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Virginia McFadden of Marion watched six aunts play basketball from the 1930s to ’50s. She played in high school and college, and served as an assistant coach while she taught high school.

“I knew from the time I was in third grade that I was going to play,” McFadden, 66, said.

She hasn’t let retirement stop her. The free throw ace known as Squirrel on the court has a nimble reputation for “being everywhere” when she plays.

Before she joined, Kraft remembered seeing a Granny Basketball team when she was taking her son to a sporting event.

“I might have to look into that when I get old,” she said to herself.

But when a fellow pickleball player introduced her to the sport, she realized the age to qualify wasn’t high, after all. After years of going to sporting events for her kids, she was happy to see people her age do something other than sit in the bleachers.

Trish Spear of Toddville has found new joy in the sport years after she played a rougher version of it with her brothers and father. Since fouling out in the first quarter of her first game, she’s been learning how to adjust to the new rules.

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“I love the camaraderie,” she said. “We give each other grief.”

When Siguenza’s sons left home around 2003, Granny Basketball was her answer to the “empty nest syndrome.” She found it to be a great way to exercise and meet new people. And, as health problems creep in or relatives get sick, it’s a great escape from aging.

“When you’re playing, you don’t think about anything else,” Siguenza, 74, said. “It’s a wonderful getaway from life’s problems.”

She hopes that others, no matter their age, learn at least one thing from watching the stamina of a 50-plus team playing and shooting hoops.

“You can have fun, you can continue to play sports,” she said. “Age is not a limit for your ability to go out there and perform and have fun.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.