Rolling along: Sport of bocce gaining fans and understanding

Monday, May 14, 2001 | 8:42 a.m.

What is this fascination with bocce?

The United States Bocce Federation, which sponsors more than 50 tournaments per year around the nation, held its U.S. National Championship in Las Vegas in March.

Nearly 100 bocce teams, featuring about 600 players, participated last week in the annual Corporate Challenge Bocce Tournament, sponsored by Las Vegas' Department of Leisure Services.

The World Bocce Association's annual Superball Western Classic Bocce Tournament will be Thursday through Sunday at Palace Station. The WBA has brought the tournament to Las Vegas for the past five years.

The sport was an exhibition event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and is being considered by the International Olympic Committee for inclusion in future Games.

Phil Ferrari, founder of the WBA, said bocce is the best-kept secret in sports.

"It's one of the world's fastest-growing games," said Ferrari, who runs his organization from Bensenville, Ill. "Four million Americans play bocce regularly, and 25 million Americans have played it at least once."

He said the three most popular participation sports in the world (in order of popularity) are soccer, bocce and golf.

Somewhat overstating the interest in the game, he said he believes in a few years, "there will be a bocce set in every home, like there is a phone."

Ferrari explained the sport was brought to the United States by Italian immigrants in the early 1900s. "The WBA has been working to change the perception of bocce ball as only a game played by little old Italian men getting drunk on red wine," he said.

Ferrari, who is Italian, said the country, especially the baby boomers, "is slowly discovering what my family knew long ago: Bocce can be played competitively no matter the participant's age or size." Marilyn Louden, who works for the Department of Leisure Services at the Dula Center on East Bonanza Road near Las Vegas Boulevard North, may deserve as much credit as anyone for building local interest in the sport.

When the city's recreation department began Corporate Challenge 16 years ago, Louden was asked to coordinate the bocce event.

"I didn't know anything about bocce, but I know how to coordinate an event," she said.

It didn't take long for Louden to become a bocce buff.

"Shortly after that I got involved with the National Federation (of Bocce) and was elected to the board of directors," she said.

Louden has won a couple of gold medals playing in national bocce tournaments.

She said Corporate Challenge has been one of the catalysts that created so much local interest in bocce, introducing the sport to crops of new players every year.

Two leagues sponsored by Leisure Services also have helped propel bocce's popularity. The leagues have 2,000 members. Five years ago there was only one league with 150 members.

People frequently seek Louden's advice on building bocce courts in their yards and neighborhoods. The city has 11 courts at Jaycee Park, at East Sahara and South Eastern avenues.

She said many of those people playing the sport, either in friendly neighborhood games or leagues, are retired people.

"A lot of new areas, like Sun City Anthem, are putting in bocce courts," Louden said.

Bocce what?

Bocce historians say ancient Egyptians started a form of bocce 7,200 years ago, and the Romans picked it up and spread it around the world.

Shakespeare mentioned it in a number of plays, including "Richard II."

There's an apocryphal story passed along by bocce historians that Sir Francis Drake, responsible for defending England against a fleet of Spanish ships poised to attack in 1588, said something similar to, "Damn the Armada, let's finish this bocce game!"

Bocce is Italian for "kiss." The object of the sport is to roll a two-pound ball (4 1/5 inches in diameter, 13 1/2 inches in circumference) down a lane (10-13 feet wide, 60-92 feet long) to touch, or kiss, a smaller ball, called a pallino.

Eight bocce balls are used. The team with the closest ball to the pallino scores one point. Only one team may score on any given round, but can score up to four points per turn. The winner is the team which reaches 20 points first.

The game is sort of a mixture of bowling and shuffleboard.

According to the World Bocce Association there are three styles of play -- puntata (gentle), volo (strong flying) and raffa (strong smash).

The puntata players gently roll the bocce ball as close as possible to the target ball. This method is the most widely used.

In volo the ball is tossed in the air in the manner of pitching a softball with a high arc and a reverse spin at the moment of release. This spin causes the ball to stop at the point of impact.

The raffa is a strong shot similar to the volo, except that the raffa does not lob. It is executed close to the ground in either an underhand or overhand pitch.

A player may throw spin, toss, roll, bounce or otherwise propel their bocce ball in any manner, provided that it is done with one hand and in a manner that will not be purposefully damaging to the bocce equipment or playing field.

Bocce amore

Bea Tedrow, a secretary for the Clark County School District, fell in love with bocce the first time she played it four years ago.

"I used to play shuffleboard a lot," she said. "The guys that were playing bocce said I should try it, that I would really enjoy it. So I threw the ball out a few times, and I did."

Tedrow was working at the Riviera at the time, and joined the casino's bocce team. "I wasn't familiar with bocce when I started, but it was so easy to learn."

She was one of the volunteers keeping score at the recent Corporate Challenge.

"Bocce is friendly rivalry," she said. "Some of the strategy is like shuffleboard, but it's a different game."

She said she likes the sport because it's played outside, it's a great way to socialize, it isn't too strenuous and anyone can play.

Jean Baum is a testament that the game is one for all ages.

The 78-year-old woman, who is on a team called Pallino Pals, took up the sport three years ago.

"Somebody suggested it to me," she said. "I liked it."

Baum's team has six members. "We just go to games, we don't practice. Everyone is involved with something else," she said.

Baum said even though her heritage is part Italian, she knew nothing about bocce ball before she began playing.

"I played shuffleboard and bowled -- things along those lines," she said.

While many people play in leagues year around, Baum said she sits out of the game in the summer because of the heat.

Not so for Doug McKenick, a maintenance man at the Riviera who says he can't get enough bocce. He's a member of two leagues and plays the game two or three nights a week nearly all year long.

He is also a volunteer for the Corporate Challenge Bocce Tournament, taking care of the bocce courts, keeping score and doing anything else asked of him.

"I've been playing about seven years," McKenick said. "The Corporate Challenge got me into it. I was hooked from Game One. There are a lot of great people out here. It's such a great sport. It's a lot of fun."

He said bocce is a "gentleman's sport. People are very courteous -- it's one of the things I like about it."

McKenick said he's noticed the sport's boost in local popularity in recent years.

"I'm seeing more and more people involved," he said. "Of course I recruit everybody I talk to -- I consider that part of my volunteer's job."

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