COVINGTON TWP, Pa., November 8th, 2024- This year a new winter sport is being introduced to the high school. Students now have the opportunity to join the brand new Unified Bocce team. Recently, North Pocono has been given permission to move forward with the formation of Bocce.
The new PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) sport will be led by Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Chickeletti. The team needs to be a minimum of ten players on the team including 4 students with an intellectual disability, 4 general education students and 2 students to be alternates. Bocce is a sport played with two teams, each team using different color balls. A tiny white ball will be in the court somewhere, and the goal is to get your bocce balls as close to the white ball as possible.
The matches will be held in middle school wherever they can set up. Because of how easy the sport is to set up, the matches can be played in the gym, foyer, hallway, etc. While the schedule isn’t set up yet, the sport will start in January. The general plan right now is for there to be 3 matches, one home match and two away matches. Since the Special Olympics pays for all of the equipment and coaches, the school district only pays for bussing and they are only required to host one match.
The creation of the sport in our school has sparked student interest. Junior Riley Scott said, “I think it’s important to have more school activities that are super inclusive, because we need more activities in our school that are accessible to everyone”. Bocce is a sport that not a lot of people in the school know about. Scott thinks, “It is going to be fun for new people to learn the sport. It should be fun and easy for the students”. Although Riley can’t join the team due to other commitments, she is excited for the people who are playing.
The Special Olympics allowed North Pocono to create a second unified sports team because of the success of the Unified Track team. Since the Unified Track team has a lot of participants and a lot of supporters, the Bocce team has now been created. Dr. Donna Carey said, “Bocce is going to be a new PIAA winter sport in NP, and we are really excited to have been given permission to move forward!” She, along with the two coaches, hope that the amount of student participation grows for this sport just like it has with other sports.
