JANELLE STRAWSBURG
Staff Writer
Forza Italia. Translated: Long live Italy. No, not the very attractive World Cup Champions, this is another Italian sport, one that is typically characterized by hunched old men, intense concentration and an assortment of odd-sized balls.
The sport is bocce (pronounced bah-chee) ball, and while it might be characteristic of a historic sporting trend in Italy, for some Pepperdine students it is the latest fad.
Competitive bocce spirit came alive as a part of the Spirit Cup for this year’s Homecoming. The track day event included tug of war, an egg toss, relay races and surprisingly, bocce ball.
“I think what I like best is that it is a relaxing sport,” said junior Courtney Schreiber. “Anyone can play it because it is very much a social sport. You can play it with a big group of people. And as much as there is skill, it is something you can play at any age and any skill level and have just as much fun.”
Bocce originated among the early Romans, a sport of statesmen and rulers. It soon spread across Europe even crossing the Channel to Great Britain.
In fact, legend has it that the famous Sir Francis Drake refused to go out to face the Spanish Armada in 1588 until he had finished his game of bocce, saying, “First we finish the game, then we’ll deal with the Armada.”
The game has a distinctly Italian feel to it because the first bocce clubs were organized in Italy. In 1947, the first Italian league was formed around the city of Torino with 15 teams. That was also the year that introduced the Bocce World Championships.
Briana Sheppel, a junior who studied abroad with the Florence program, recalls seeing the sport of bocce alive and well within the city.
“When you’d walk around the parks in Florence you could see old men come out in the evenings and play, it was a social gathering,” Sheppel said.
The rules of bocce are fairly simple. The sport is played with one small ball called a pallino and eight larger balls called bocci (plural) or bocce (singular), four for each team. The pallino is tossed out on the hard surface, made up of crushed rock or sea shells in professional play, and becomes the target. Players then proceed to throw or roll their bocce with the goal of getting it as close to the pallino as possible.
A full game of Bocce is called a round, with the score going up to 11 points. The round is separated into scoring periods called giri (plural) or giro (singular). In each giro only one team may score points. A point is scored for the team with its bocce closest to the pallino. Additional points are scored if a team has multiple bocce closer to the pallino than any other bocce from the opposing team.
The game takes a competitive turn when throwing strategies are tossed in. Not only are players attempting to get their bocce ball close to the pallino, but they can also aim to move the pallino from its resting place to a more advantageous sitting spot or even maliciously seek to knock another team’s bocce from a prime position.
Junior Spencer Vaughn enjoys the fun atmosphere bocce provides but also appreciates the competitive aspect.
“The objective of the game is to get your ball close to the little ball and for some reason that gets so much fun and competitive,” Vaughn said. “People get angry which is always good fun. When I get a good one, I always jump up and down and run around and make a huge scene.”
“At first I didn’t think many would come because I didn’t know if many people knew about bocce ball but everyone got really into it,” said Schreiber, a member of theTri Delta sorority. “Everyone that was out on Alumni Park, people were cheering, people were playing and it actually got pretty competitive.”
Schreiber went on to say that it was exciting to see because whether it is bocce ball or anything else, to see students get excited about something and have pride in what they were doing is always cool.
For students interested in taking up the sport of bocce, Campus Recreation owns a set which they willingly check out for free to be used for the day or for special events. And if interest continues to rise, the intramural department would consider starting up a league.
“Currently we are not starting a bocce ball league, however if there is substantial interest we would be glad to offer some tournaments and special events,” said Matthew Kalish, coordinator of intramurals and club sports. “If interest continues a league is possible.”
“I would probably join if they started an intramural league on campus,” said Schreiber. “And I could probably find enough people to play with me that would make it worthwhile for them to do.”
However, any type of bocce ball recreation attempted on campus by students would be a far cry from the actual professional game, not because of a lack of skill but rather because real bocce never occurs on a grass surface, but on a specific type of court.
“The real courts are pretty long and made out of crushed and compacted sea shells which is pretty hard, almost like cement with walls on the side to bounce your bocce off,” said Vaughn. “The court is so hard and the ball rolls so easy that it comes down to having such a touch.”
Vaughn continued, stressing the importance of touch on ball control, especially playing breaks on the flat, groomed court surface.
With no real bocce court on campus, students might have a hard time perfecting their skill enough to win the United States Bocce Federation’s National Championships, an event complete with medals, divisions and an award banquet. But for a relaxing afternoon out on Alumni Field, it is hard to not bring out a set of bocce and test the skill required of this Italian pastime.
03-22-2007
