Albert Esparsen, 73, has always been athletic. He's been a runner since his boyhood in Trujillo, near Las Vegas, N.M. In his 40s, he started playing basketball with his kids.

Esparsen often took his boys — all six of them — out for a game of basketball.

"I started playing with my boys, and I just got hooked," said Esparsen, who also has four daughters.

Now the Santa Fe resident joins a group of basketball-playing buddies every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Fort Marcy Complex.

Since the age of 55, he has been part of the Senior Olympics, training both for running events (the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter dash) and basketball tournaments.

"I saw an ad in The New Mexican one day and I told my wife, 'I'm going to do that,' " Esparsen said. "I think it's the competition. I've been a fairly competitive type of guy. I was competitive in academics, too."

The latest basketball tournament was held Saturday at Genoveva Chavez Community Center. Esparsen hadn't planned to be part of the Senior Olympics three-on-three basketball tournament this year, but a team from Fort Collins, Colo., was short a man and asked Esparsen to play.

"The captain of the team called the director in Roswell and asked if he knew of anybody that was available," Esparsen said. As of Friday afternoon, the day before the tournament was set to start, Esparsen hadn't even met his new teammates.

"It's all in fun," Esparsen said. "It's competitive and everybody wants to win, of course, but it's OK."

Esparsen doesn't even really play a specific position. "The tall guys play in the middle and the rest of us run around," he said. "We don't have assigned positions like regular five-on-five."

The tournament also is played half-court.

"Oh heavens, (we're) a bunch of old goats," Esparsen said, explaining that for full-court games, "We'd need three cardiologists standing on the sidelines."

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.