By Donald Wittkowski
All of you sports fans out there, it’s time for a quiz.
Quickly name the third most popular sport in the world.
Football? Hardly. Baseball? Not even close. Basketball? Sorry, that’s wrong, too.
Behind soccer and golf, bocce ball is the third most participated sport on the planet, with more than 25 million players in this country alone, according to the United States Bocce Federation.
Now, Sea Isle City is ready to join the worldwide craze by building its first public bocce ball court at its Dealy Field athletic complex.
City Council is expected to award a $23,500 construction contract on Tuesday for the court, which will be ready in time for the bustling summer tourism season.
Bocce ball continues Sea Isle’s trend of introducing new types of recreation to its residents and tourists. Last year, the city opened its first permanent pickleball courts on West Jersey Avenue, next to the recreation complex on the John F. Kennedy Boulevard entryway into town.
“We’re always looking to make improvements so that Sea Isle City is the best that it can be. Offering more recreation goes hand in hand with that concept,” city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said of bocce ball.
Sea Isle’s Italian-American Club has a bocce ball court, but there is currently no official public bocce ball court in town, Custer said. She noted that she occasionally sees bocce ball being played on improvised courts on the beaches during the summer.
The city’s new bocce ball court is expected to be free to the public, although Custer said she still must officially confirm there will be no charge to use it.
The object of the game is to roll your bocce balls closer to the pallino ball, known as the “jack,” than your opponent.
The game’s leisurely pace makes it especially popular among senior citizens, but bocce ball also appeals to young enthusiasts, Custer pointed out.
“Bocce ball is a nice addition for everyone,” she said.
Invented in Egypt around 5000 B.C., the game was popularized in Italy centuries later and flourished in this country after it was introduced by the Italian immigrants, the United States Bocce Federation says on its website.
A communitywide survey conducted by Sea Isle in 2015 found that bocce ball was one of the forms of recreation local residents wanted to see in the city.
“Adding bocce ball at Dealy Field makes perfect sense,” Custer said, referring to the survey.
