The Bocce Club just finished three big tasks for early 2025: Our February Boot Camps, the follow up Beginner mixer tournament and new referee training. The boot camps and the beginner mixer, both coordinated by Tom Hunt, involved close to 50 novice bocce players. In the boot camps, Tom was assisted by experienced and skilled bocce player volunteers. The “mini” tournament was designed to allow these novice bocce players to try out their newly acquired skills. They got lots of practice time on the courts. The newest bocce club members were assisted in joining the other 620+ bocce members by our busy membership chair, Jeanne-Anne Whitacre (jawhitacre@live.com).
These new bocce members are finishing and joining just in time to join the first big tournament of 2025, The Spring Mixer starting March 10. And also just in time are our newly minted referees. Kerry Besmehn is the bocce referee coordinator and she spent a few hours on Saturday, February 22 giving interested bocce members all the ins and outs of being a referee. Our referees are a vital part of any bocce tournament. Most tournaments have 32-38 teams playing for six weeks, two games each meeting. Each bocce game requires a referee who determines who wins the points and decides close calls. These games are 40 minutes each and there are two games played, three days a week for six weeks. So a huge number of referees are required to make these tournaments function and move along well. Thank you, Tom, for the new bocce members and thank you, Kerry, for these new and vital referrees.
You can now show your fondness for Bocce by getting some of the 2025 bocce apparel going on sale March 1. Check it out on the bocce website or contact Karen Peters at karen03@swbell.net
More information about bocce events such as bashes, apparel and tournaments can be found on the club website, https://villagesbocce.vgcc.club
