Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Lisa Marusic takes her turn on an indoor court at Campo di Bocce.

Play Ball!

Young and old love the game of bocce

By Mary Ann Cook

Picture this: an amphitheater carved into the hills in a small mountain town perched somewhere between the bustle of Rome and the gleam of the Adriatic. Olive trees stud the hillsides. Spectators in the amphitheater are watching the action on the eight bocce ball courts spread out below them.

This is what Saratogan Tom Albanese found in his travels through Italy five years ago when he sought out his grandfather's birthplace, Campo Basso. And this, in many ways, is the vision he wanted to give the bocce ball courts he opened in Los Gatos six months ago.

OK, so there isn't any 200-seat amphitheater carved out of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The California version is housed in a former lumberyard on University Avenue in Los Gatos.

It is the valley's biggest concentration of bocce courts--six, count 'em, six--with space for two more portable courts.

"Everyone said I was crazy to try to start a bocce ball club, and maybe I was, but this is what I dreamed about doing ever since I saw the courts in Italy," Albanese says.

Even the fact that the former lumberyard became available when it did is significant, because that's where Albanese made some of his first sales calls when he started working for his father's building-materials supply company just out of college. Now Albanese, 50, owns the company, Central Concrete Supply Co. Inc.

Not only were the building and grounds the right size, but he personally knew the owners, people he had called on for years. "When I saw it was available, I thought, 'Hey, somebody's trying to tell me something.' "

And so negotiations began. Albanese would write a figure on scrap paper on the company's counter, and the next time he came in, there would be another number on the sheet, a counteroffer from the owners. This informal bidding arrangement went on for several months until the deal was clinched and El Gato Building Materials became Campo di Bocce.

The name was chosen after much mulling: It had to convey the feeling Albanese wanted, and "campo," meaning "village," worked. In this village, which opened for action in February, there are bocce courts indoors and out, a private clubhouse, a restaurant, pool tables and a gift shop.

"It's the only one anywhere anything like it," Albanese says.

Public bocce ball courts used to abound in the San Jose area, and there are still a few. There is one in Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos, for instance, and there are courts in Willow Glen and other parts of San Jose.

At the other extreme from public parks are private bocce ball courts in the back yards of local devotees of the game, including Albanese. Bocce courts are not very expensive to create. If the homeowner does most of the labor, Albanese says, about $2,500 should do it. Albanese, who lives on Pepper Lane, has one at his Saratoga home, and his neighbor recently put one in, he says. The main requirement is space: Courts are roughly 65 feet long by 10 feet wide.

Albanese says he uses his backyard court, made of fine granite and oyster shell powder, during the summer. Bocce is a popular game because anyone can play, he says. "You'll find grandma and grandpa and all the kids out there playing. It's something anyone can do, unlike golf or tennis."

When Albanese first opened his facility, he was betting on the success of bocce as a sport. Campo di Bocce is the first recreational club in the area devoted to bocce. The Peninsula Social Club in Menlo Park has bocce, but its emphasis is more on the social and less on the game, Albanese says. There's also a restaurant in Santa Cruz with a bocce court in back.

"The social thing is a large part of the game," says Joe Morelli, general manager of the club.

The sport is intergenerational; it's easy to learn, and newcomers can get up to speed fast. Youngsters, seniors, even those who have suffered strokes--all can compete at this 7,000-year-old game, Albanese explains.

It's not just elderly Italian males who relish bocce, although that's the public perception. Nationally, 40 percent of bocce players are women, Morelli says.

Seniors will be a big part of the act at Campo di Bocce.

"People in walkers, people who have had strokes, can still play bocce," Albanese says. Courts both inside and out are wheelchair-accessible .

So far, Albanese has cause for optimism. The club is now 300 members strong, with memberships divided among singles, families and corporations.

A big part of the business has turned out to be corporate events. "A lot of corporations book bocce events that are often intended for team-building and include bocce competition," Albanese says.

Three nights a week are now devoted to league play; there are 30 teams of four members each. The club has also hosted two Northern California bocce tournaments, drawing competitors from some 40 clubs throughout the region.

Albanese has been playing the game only a few years. He's a member of the Los Gatos Bocce Ball Club, which has been in existence seven years and has grown to more than 50 members from its original handful.

Growing interest in the sport is a reason Albanese decided to tackle the $2 million project. Investor and partner Gary Filizetti came aboard "in spite of the fact that he thinks I'm nuts," Albanese laughs.

Bocce is one of the oldest games known to man; it evidently began in Egypt and spread to the Middle East and then to Greece and Rome, where it gained popularity throughout the Roman Empire. According to legend, a Roman emperor outlawed play because his legions were spending too much time at bocce ball and too little at archery practice.

Albanese wanted to be true to the Old World roots of the game. His courts are made of pulverized oyster shells, not synthetic materials, although the two portable courts have carpeted playing surfaces.

The 11,000-square-foot clubhouse, designed by architect Kenneth Rodrigues of Monte Sereno, has an open-beam ceiling and makes use of some of the same Santa Cruz Mountains redwood trees that were part of the original building. The original structure was built in 1938 and was used to manufacture dehydrating equipment for fruit-drying and processing plants. Later, it housed El Gato Building Materials for 30 years. And now, a little bit of Italy.

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