New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
East Haven bocce elites square off in town championship
It was the best of the best at this summer’s East Haven recreation league bocce league championship at the town beach.
And that’s saying something. Among the competitors: Giuseppe “Joe” DeLucia, 73, who was, as East Haven Recreation Director Liz Franco-Spano put it, “on fire.”
“He’s hitting every shot,” said Franco-Spano, among the 50 onlookers on benches and leaning over the ledge, as the waves lapped onto the beach below. “He’s good, but tonight he’s just hitting everything.”
DeLucia is part of the legendary East Haven quartet that bested roughly 100 teams from around the country and Canada in the annual World Series of Bocce in Rome, N.Y., in 2007 and 2014. The team included DeLucia’s brother Andy, as well as Vinnie Gagliardi and Angelo Rossetti.
All four men hail from Caserta, a city in southern Italy, about a two-hour drive south from Rome, according to Rossetti.
There also was Tommy Mancini, 90, whose team won the rec league championship last year, and who has the most championships in the league, according to Franco-Spano. He would take home league MVP at the awards ceremony the following night. (Annie Corris was named the female MVP.)
“They’re all Hall of Famers,” said Christopher Bonagiuso, secretary of the East Haven Italian American Club, who was competing for the Bocce Italians.
Bonagiuso’s father, Robert, was on the opposing team, which was sponsored by Martorelli CPA. So was Gennaro Gagliardi; his father, Jerry, was on the Bocce Italians.
“Fathers versus sons,” FrancoSpano said. “It gets tense.”
But then there were the pink skies, the sailboats bobbing on the water, the smell of sea-salt in the air, the spirited crowd. There were also the new courts, with their Har-Tru surface, like a tennis court’s. The town put them in this year.
“Completely redid them, top to bottom,” Franco-Spano said, amid the clack of balls and good-natured ribbing. “All donations from local residents. No money came out of the taxpayers’ pockets.”
While the courts are new, the town bocce league is not. Former Mayor Henry Luzzi founded it, Franco-Spano said. Former rec director Louis Pane and Vinny Camera organized the first league.
The rec league is growing in popularity. It currently has teams playing three nights each week, up from two nights last year, according to Franco-Spano. Next year the league will expand to four nights. Franco-Spano said there are six teams on the wait list.
That’s in line with current trends. According to worldbocce.org, “the popularity of bocce in America has been on the rise since it swept California in 1989,” with more than 25,000,000 bocce enthusiasts that play recreationally on structured courts in the United States.
Andre Dussan was taking a break from refereeing the match. Last month, he competed in the World Series of Bocce. His team went to the third round.
“I like to play competitive, but I also like to hang out with the guys,” said Dussan, who learned the game in 2003. “East Haven, it’s a small town, everyone knows each other, and over the years, these guys have become like family.”
Bonagiuso, who started playing bocce after high school, recalled someone regaling the crowd with his accordion during matches. “It’s a great social staple for the Italian community, but really anybody is welcome,” he said. He added that East Haven will host the Italian Heritage Parade on Oct. 9.
No one seemed to know the year the league was founded. Estimates ranged from between 20 to 25 years ago.
That uncertainty was in stark contrast to the way the two teams scrutinized Dussan, as he measured which of their bocce balls were closest to the pallino after each round.
Following the action from the sidelines was Rossetti, 73, DeLucia’s teammate on the 2007 and 2014 world championship squads. With another quartet, he prevailed in 2011.
Rossetti, of course, is from Caserta. He started playing at 12. When he came to the United States in 1968, he got himself settled, then resumed.
“I had a job at a company in Hamden, and we had a bocce court, so we had a little lunch before, and then we played bocce,” he said.
“I love bocce,” he said. “When you do something good, it makes you want to get better, so you work on everything, you work on your follow-through. You gotta follow the target like you want to touch the ball.”
He recalled the second game in the finals of the 2011 world championship. “We were two shots back, and I had to make a shot, so I threw the ball down the entire length of the court and it hit the backboard and kicked the ball out, and we won,” he said, beaming a smile. “That was a good day.”
As this year’s competition was concluding. Joe DeLucia’s team won three games to one.
“But since we’re all family, no one really loses,” Bonagiuso said, as the sun set over the water.