A pair of well-tanned men stood at each end of the bocce ball court in the Windcrest East retirement community Monday afternoon, where a group of residents gather each afternoon to play the Italian bowling game.
“This is actually playing very good today because of all the rain we had. When it’s dry it’s like playing in sand,” said Frank Kelly, who’s been playing with the community team since they joined the Southampton Bocce League two years ago.
Kelly and teammates Jim Devereaux, Mickey Mildenberger, Fred Meister, Walter Blanc and Frank Cavallaro form the Windcrest East Bocci Club. They took first place of the 24 teams in the Southampton Bocce League’s championship this summer. Kelly said the sport’s popularity is on the rise, and he wants to see the town start a league of its own like Southampton’s.
Kelly went to the Riverhead Town Board meeting Oct. 1 to ask the board to consider building a bocce court at the new Veterans Memorial Park in Calverton. It could serve as a home court for the town league Kelly hopes to see created, since all the usable local courts are located in private communities.
Kelly said a court would be a nice feature because the sport has a wide appeal.
“It’s very democratic in that anybody can play it,” said Kelly. “You gotta see how many women play it. It’s not about power, it’s about finesse.”
Next to soccer and golf, Bocce is the third most participated sport in the world and is considered the oldest know sport in world history, according to the U.S. Bocce Federation.
The game of bocce traces its roots to ancient Egypt. The game made its way to Greece around 800 B.C. The Romans learned the game from the Greeks, and then introduced it throughout the empire. The sport first came to America in the English version called “bowls,” played on close-cut lawns. The popularity of bocce in America has been on the rise; there are more than 25,000,000 bocce enthusiasts throughout the U.S. today, according to the USBF website. bocce.com
“I think it’s a good idea,” Councilman George Gabrielsen said of the proposal to build a bocce court at the town park in Calverton. Gabrielsen, the town board’s liaison for parks and recreation, said he will make the recommendation at an Oct. 21 meeting with recreation superintendent Raymond Coyne.
Gabrielsen said that although limited recreation funds are available, he didn’t expect a court to be out of reach.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Micah Danney
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