Bocce - popular sport - really?

Is bocce ball D.C.’s most social sport?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/is-bocce-ball-dcs-most-social-sport/2014/03/13/a19e4acc-aab9-11e3-af5f-4c56b834c4bf_story.html 


Tennis and golf get all the credit for being the sports you can enjoy your whole life. But bocce ball — another popular game among the retirement set — is carving out a niche of its own in the Washington area.
The local community of bocce players is growing, and the boom is being led by players in their 20s and 30s. Bocce ball involves two teams taking turns to roll a set of colorful balls close to a target ball.

 

“This idea that bocce is just this old Italian man’s sport, that’s definitely something we wanted to break out of,” said Sarah DeLucas, 34, who runs the DC Bocce League. “Anyone can play bocce. It doesn’t matter what your athletic skill level is. It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman. Age doesn’t matter. You can’t just look at someone and say, ‘That person is going to be an awesome bocce player.’ Anyone can be good at bocce.”
or DeLucas, it all started 10 years ago.
She and a group of friends, then in their early 20s, were hanging out one night when the topic of bocce came up. One of DeLucas’s friends had been raised playing the game, and convinced the rest of the gFroup it was worth trying.
“So we all just gave each other titles,” DeLucas says. “It was like, ‘okay, you’re the president. You’re the vice president.’ It was kind of like creating The Baby-sitters Club.”
But what began as an inside joke has turned into a phenomenon. Running DC Bocce is now a full-time job for DeLucas. About 8,000 players sign up to play with the league each year. (Registration for outdoor bocce is open through April 4.)
DC Bocce also offers a bar league and a “glo bocce” league, which involves bocce balls that light up. The outdoor league includes some games on makeshift courts — a stretch of grass in the outfield of a Little League diamond, for instance — but also offers access to some of the otherwise hidden bocce courts cropping up around Washington.
You don’t have to be in a league to enjoy the District’s best known public bocce court, in Garfield Park near Capitol Hill. DC Bocce frequently uses that court and also offers access to some private courts.

“I find bocce completely relaxing,” Silk said. “It’s a sport you can play with a glass of wine or beer in your hand. I’ve played softball on the National Mall. I’ve played in kickball games. Those can still be a high-stress environment. But bocce itself has always lent itself to drinking and betting and socializing. It’s perfect.”