Juniata High School

Along with various other sports, Juniata high schoolers now have the option to play Bocce Ball. Bocce ball will be introduced to Juniata as an intramural sport. What is bocce ball? According to traditional rules, bocce ball is played between two teams. Each team plays with four bocce balls that are different colors. The objective of the game is to roll your team’s bocce balls closest to the target ball. The target ball is called the pallino, the pallino is the smallest ball in bocce ball. Each frame of bocce ball is played from one side of the court and begins with the pallino being rolled into play on the court. Basic rules state that when throwing a bocce ball, in order for your ball to remain on the court, it must be thrown underhand and roll beyond the half court line. Your feet must also remain behind the foot fault line. The team closest to the pallino is “in” while the other team is “out.” The team that is “out”  throws until they are “in” or out of balls. To become the team that is “in” you must roll a ball to be closer to the pallino than any of the other team’s balls. Points are scored after all balls have been thrown. Only the team with a ball closest to the pallino is awarded any points for that frame. If two balls are at equal distance from the pallino, then the next closest ball breaks the tie. The closest ball to the pallino is awarded one point, however, if the ball is touching the pallino then the team is awarded two points. The first team to reach 11 points, and win by 2 points wins that game. In the United States alone, more than 25 million people play bocce making it the third most popular sport in the world. Bocce is truly an interesting sport that many students at JHS could learn to love.