Finesse and luck made the bocce balls roll in favor of the victorious team at Elmwood Park Parks and Recreation’s Spring Bocce Ball League Championship.
The bocce ball team “All Bocch’d Up” came out on top in July for the recreation’s department’s spring championship at Centennial Park, 7600 W. Armitage Ave., out of a field of 32 teams at the start of the spring season. The team will be recognized at Aug. 17 Village Board meeting for their victory and receive a trophy.
All Bocch’d Up is made up of five members: Mark Mattio, Mike O’Leary, Jim Platt, Larry Menconi and John Bottigliero. The team members are from Elmwood Park and Chicago’s Galewood neighborhood.
Mattio, 62, organized the team and have been participating in the bocce league since it began last year. Since the park’s two bocce courts have been open to the public, the game has become very popular.
Bocce is played with eight large balls and one smaller ball, called a pallina. Each team gets four balls of one color or pattern. The game begins with the toss of a coin to determine who has first toss of the pallina.
The pallina is rolled by the winners of the toss, who then throw the bigger ball as close as possible to it to start play. Each team gets four balls.
Teams score points based on how close the larger balls come to the pallina after everyone on the team gets a throw. The first to reach a designated number of points, usually 16, wins.
Mattio said their team won the championship by winning a best-of-three match against their opponents, the Wavebull Snappers, but it wasn’t easy. It took over two hours to finish all three games.
“It was such a good game and a close game it kept us on our toes,” he said. “Playing like that, not only are the games long, but you know that you are evenly matched.”
He and his teammates are enjoying being winners, but wouldn’t have been upset if they had lost.
“We say we won using the right strategy, but truthfully so much of it is luck,” Mattio said. “When it came down to the playoffs, it could have gone either way.”
Plus, the competition is friendly.
“It’s a family-friendly environment,” he said. “The course is great; it gets people together in the community and it serves a nice purpose.”
Twitter: @DavidDPollard
