The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
TOURNEY READY
Italian-American club prepared to host 36th annual Cleveland Challenge Cup
Over one weekend near the end of summer each year, Wickliffe becomes the center of the Midwest’s bocce community.
More than 100 teams and upward of 12,000 spectators will descend on the city’s Italian-American Club for the 36th annual Pat O’Brien Cleveland Challenge Cup of Bocce. The region’s largest bocce tournament, containing more than $23,000 in prize money, takes place Aug. 23-25.
Tongue-in-cheek, tournament director Paul DiCicco and former director Gino Latessa describe the hectic days of preparation ahead of the tournament as “heaven week.” But over a weekend filled with entertainment, live music and bocce, the Italian-American Club and its members are thrilled to display their heritage.
“It galvanizes our community and our membership,” DiCicco said. “It really brings people together and makes them feel great that they’re able to put on such a great event, and people come into town just fawning over it.”
The tournament began in 1983 and featured 16 teams playing on three courts in its first iteration. The pavilion located at 29717 Euclid Avenue now features nine bocce courts, which will accommodate 115 registered teams. Participants annually travel to Wickliffe from Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida and locations in between.
Latessa’s father was a founding member of the club in 1932. Many faces, from near and far, are now familiar.
“People plan their vacation around this tournament,” Latessa said. “They know it’s the weekend before Labor Day every year — they just love to come here. They love the atmosphere, the music, the entertainment, the people that are here, the club members.”
The Challenge Cup’s opening ceremonies begin at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 23 with the playing of the United States, Italian and Canadian national anthems. Play in the double-elimination bracket opens at 6 p.m. and will run until after midnight. The tournament field will further winnow from a full day of competition Aug. 24 that starts at 8 a.m.
Aug. 25, the women’s championship at 4 p.m. is followed by the men’s title game at 6 p.m. The defending women’s champion, Bottliglieri’s Lawn Care of Niles, and defending men’s champion, Palazzo 777 which features the world’s recognized top player in Jose Botto, each return. As competition occurs, vendors fill in the pavilion’s surrounding area. Each evening includes live music and Aug. 25 is “Family Day,” featuring Jungle
Terry’s Traveling Zoo and Rick Smith Jr., a magician and illusionist. Other highlights include a cooking demonstration, appearance by Miss Italia, Italian history photo display from the Western Reserve Historical Society and a live broadcast of Carmelina Antonelli’s “Touch of Italy” show on WELW-AM 1330.
Proceeds from the weekend are devoted to improvements on the Italian-American Club’s 10-acre grounds, as well as the club’s scholarship fund. The ItalianAmerican
Club lends support to Wickliffe’s schools and community organizations.
“We help a lot of people out throughout the year,” Latessa said. “They help us out here, too, with coming to our events and stuff like that. It’s a paradise for me, I love it down here.”
Among the club’s 182 members, more than half assist in preparing and running the tournament. In past years, attendance neared 15,000 spectators over a weekend.
DiCicco’s grandfather also helped start the Italian-American Club. His involvement began as a child, helping his grandfather and
father. Wickliffe’s annual celebration of ancestry increasingly involves younger generations who sustain the city’s Italian-American community.
“It really is a commemoration of our families and our heritage,” DiCicco said. “The guys that are helping now, if you come down and ask the twenty-somethings, they’ll point across the aisle to their father who’s over there putting up a tent and maybe their grandfather who’s sitting on a senior bench under the pavilion.”