History at The Mecca: Unified bocce makes debut at Martz Hall
Martz Hall hosted its first-ever unified bocce match Thursday when Pottsville squared off against Pine Grove (Photo by Leroy Boyer).
POTTSVILLE — Over its nearly 55 years of existence, Martz Hall has hosted a lot of unique events.
Built in 1970, the home of the Schuylkill League basketball and volleyball playoffs has also hosted roller derby, Friendship Classic international gymnastic competitions, political rallies featuring vice president Dick Cheney and presidential candidate John McCain, championship boxing matches, professional wrestling, Division I college basketball, Division I college wrestling, the Harlem Globetrotters, stallion riding horses and even a Hooters concert in 1986.
Listed as “one of the top 10 basketball gymnasiums you have to visit before you die,” by MaxPreps.com four years ago, Martz Hall has been the site of legendary basketball performances by Kobe Bryant, Gerry McNamara and Sam Bowie, and pro boxing champion Muhammad Ali once fought there.
Thursday, another unique event was added to the Martz Hall registry.
Bocce.
Pottsville made its unified bocce debut Thursday when it squared off against Pine Grove in a pair of matches. Part of the Special Olympics Pennsylvania Unified Champion Schools program, bocce is a growing interscholastic sport in Schuylkill County, with Pottsville becoming the latest area school to field a team.
The Crimson Tide join North Schuylkill, Pine Grove, Schuylkill Haven and Williams Valley as local schools with bocce teams. Last season, Schuylkill Haven advanced all the way to the state tournament in Hershey.
Thursday, Pine Grove took both matches against Pottsville, winning the first one 7-3 and the second contest 7-5. The competition had all the glitz and glamour of a championship event, with the participants entering the gym through a balloon archway and to walk-up music, Eli Gerhard playing the national anthem on an electric guitar and a strong crowd of fans on hand to support both teams.
“It was a surreal experience going into it,” said Pottsville senior Cullen Clarke, one of the Tide’s captains. “I haven’t played at Martz Hall since I was in eighth grade. Coming back for bocce ball, a sport I never thought I’d play, it was pretty incredible.
“The fact that we had a whole balloon celebration, (walk-up) songs, an electric guitar national anthem, it was an awesome, surreal experience. It was great for the kids. It really shows we’re a unified school.”
Each bocce team is comprised of eight players: four “athletes” and four “partners.” The “athletes” are life-skills students and/or those students who participate in Special Olympics events. The “partners” can be any student, but several are athletes in a PIAA-sanctioned varsity sport.
For example, Clarke (cross country/track) and senior Luke Schane (football/baseball) played Thursday for Pottsville, while PIAA state track and field champion sprinter Viktorya Luckenbach was a member of Pine Grove’s squad.
Pottsville’s eight-player team included Clarke, Schane, Dahnika Zyk, Aidan Corby, Faith Schwartz, Jonathan Fritchman, Julie Szeliga and Reese Ketner. Pine Grove’s seven-player team consisted of Luckenbach, Ethan Kohr, Clayton Norton, George Bixler, Ethan Niemi, Mya Williams and Myla Fisher.
Bo Rogers and Amy Withelder coached the Pottsville team, while Casey Clouser and Selina Daubert were the Pine Grove coaches. Pottsville High teachers Steve Messina, Jill Chiccini, Patty Halko and Jillian Strohecker served as game officials, with the “Voice of Martz Hall,” Bob Umbenhauer doing the play-by-play announcing.
“When we found out our schedule that our first game was at Martz Hall, we were super excited,” Clouser said. “Just to be able to play here, where so many great basketball players and volleyball players … we were super excited to be here. We are excited to be the first ones to play here in Martz Hall for unified bocce.”
Added Rogers: “It was awesome. The partners did a great job with the athletes and the athletes had a lot of fun. It was a great atmosphere.”
How do you play bocce? Here are some simple rules:
** Bocce is played in a rectangular court that is broken into four quadrants, two serving areas and two playing areas. Official courts are supposed to be 86.92 feet long and 13.12 feet wide, but unofficial courts can be smaller.
Thursday, the court stretched length-wise on the Martz Hall floor, from an area just inside one foul line to an area just inside the other foul line.
** Each match has a 30-minute running clock and features “frames” where four players from each team compete at a time.
** A pre-game coin toss is held to determine which team is green and which team is red and which team throws the pallino, or small ball, first.
** The pallino must be thrown past the half-court line but no further than the 4-foot line. The player who threw the pallino throws their bocce ball first.
** After the first player throws, the opposing team throws their bocce balls until they are closer to the pallino or they have used all four balls.
** The team that gets their ball closest to the pallino scores the point for that frame. Multiple points can be scored in a frame if multiple balls of the same color are closer to the pallino than a ball from the other team.
** Frames are played alternately from one end of the court to the other. The winner of each frame throws the pallino to start the next frame.
** The match is over when time expires.
Thursday, Pottsville took a 3-1 lead in the first match when Schane and Szeliga gave the Tide two points in the third frame. Pine Grove followed by winning the next five frames, with Bixler scoring three points, Fisher two and Luckenbach one.
Kohr and Williams gave Pine Grove a 2-0 lead in the second match before Pottsville scored three straight points on balls by Ketner, Corby and Szeliga. Bixler, who was the star of the match for Pine Grove, and Fisher then gave the Cards two points in the fifth frame to put Pine Grove up 4-3.
Pine Grove clinched the second match when Bixler, Niemi and Williams all scored in the sixth frame to make it 7-3. Pottsville scored two points in the seventh frame to set the final score.
“We had practice the last couple of weeks to prepare and this past week our practice was our best yet. I knew they were ready,” Clouser said of his squad. “The kids said they were locked in and I thought they performed great. We’re excited as a team.”
The best part of the bocce match is the interaction between the “athletes” and the “partners,” especially when they make a good throw and score points.
In essence, there is a winner and loser on the scoreboard, but everyone involved in the match goes home a winner, especially the athletes.
“It’s really great to get involved with them,” Clarke said. “I ran with Aidan Corby on cross country and he always talked about how he didn’t feel included.
“We went down to Kutztown for a youth summit and learned about unified sports and how to get them in your school. Now that we get to teach them how to play (the game) and teach them how to learn to play a team sport, getting them included is really great.”
