SUN CITY – Other than golf, what is the most popular sport in Sun City?
Some might say bowling or softball or maybe tennis.
Bob Zimmerman (front) of Neighborhood 10 steps up to the line for his throw. His teammate is his wife Beth. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
Actually, based on numbers alone, the sport of bocce ball is one of the two biggest participatory athletic activities in the community, right up there with golf.
“I don’t know which is more popular here, because I play both golf and bocce ball,” says John Diebold, current president of the Bocce Ball Charter Club. “I play golf twice a week, often at other courses than Sun City, and I play bocce ball at least once a week, which hundreds of other residents do.”
Whatever its popularity level, bocce ball is definitely the oldest athletic activity at Sun City. It started in 1999, when only a few hundred residents were present and only a few hundred homes had been built on the property. Leagues and tournaments came later. “It is a sport that appeals strongly to seniors because it is both social and competitive, appeals to men and women, and can even be played by people in wheelchairs,” Diebold says. “We have several people who play in wheelchairs, and some of them are among the most skilled players we have.”
Bocce ball originated in Italy, but Diebold says he knows of no one in Sun City who knows much about the history of the sport. It is a combination of lawn bowling and shuffleboard. It involves rolling grapefruit-sized balls on an artificially surfaced court, like those used on football and soccer fields,
that measures 12-feet wide by 60-feet long.
Object is for each two-member team to place as many of its balls closer to a small red ball, called a pallino, than the other team’s closest ball. “The ball weighs about 2 ½ pounds and it is fun to watch the various styles players use to roll the ball,” Diebold says. “Some toss it up in the air, some stoop over and roll it off their fingers, and some even try to put a particular spin, or control, on it by using special grips or rolling it backhand.”
A game goes to 11 points. The game requires precise effort, rather than power or strength, which is another reason it is so popular with seniors. Balls may be rolled straight or deflected off a sideboard.
“The game is not strenuous, is very social, and typically husbands and wives form a team together and compete,” Diebold says. “Our year-end tournament has drawn some pretty good crowds of people who don’t play but enjoy watching it. Most of our players have taken it up since they came to Sun City, and almost all of them come back and play every year.”
The Sun City season starts in early June and consists of two sessions of six weeks each, with teams playing three games once each week. A season-ending tournament between the top teams in each of 18 leagues, or divisions, is held at the end of August. More than 350 players and guests are expected to attend the club’s season-ending banquet in early September at Boulder Ridge. The winning team will receive prizes of engraved clocks.
Players pay $5.00 per season to participate, and the club uses the funds to purchase balls and other equipment. The Sun City management has built and maintains six courts at the Prairie Lodge next to the pavilion.
One more thing—bocce ball officials say you don’t have to be Italian to play.
