Bocce enthusiasts come up special

By CARLO IMELIO
Staff writer

SPRINGFIELD - In Rico Daniele's perfect world, every park, playground, school and backyard would have a bocce court.  Born in Bracigliano Province di Salerno, he was brought here at the age of four.  And, relentlessly, the owner of Mom and Rico Daniele's Specialty Market in the South End, is working on promoting the game, which originated in Italy, with boundless energy and zeal Daniele, whose book "The Wonderful World of Bocce" has found its way to virtually every corner of the world, has had some big moments as he has spread the word about his passion. But his greatest satisfaction, he said, will come starting tomorrow in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area..

Throughout the weekend and next week, Daniele will serve as head official for bocce at Special Olympics World Summer Games. Among the 30 bocce officials will be three other Springfield based veterans of the game - Mario Pagnoni, Domenic Tessicini and Richard Calvanese.
Buoyed by a personal note from Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Daniele is so high on the great event and his participation, he's closing the family business until he returns.
"It's a special event, and it's such an honor to be a part of it," said Daniele, who first picked up a bocce ball at age 4 at the Mount Carmel courts and figuratively hasn't dropped it since.

"Bocce and the Special Olympics are things my heart's into. I want to see everybody play bocce. Some of these kids can't run and play; they maybe can't play soccer, or maybe they can't swim or do horseback riding. They may not be able to do those things, but they cant hold a bocce ball."
The 10th Special Olympics World Summer Games, which Kennedy Shriver founded in 1969, will play host to more than 7,000 athletes and 2,000 coaches from 150 countries, with competition in 18 Olympic-style events. That bocce is one of them is a direct result of the efforts of Daniele, who acknowledges spending countless hours and "a small fortune" in getting his dream realized in 1995, when the Games were held at New Haven, Conn.

That the participation in bocce has grown to the degree it is today is rather astonishing. "When the Games were held in New Haven in '95, the United States had 14 teams, and there were 24 countries playing bocce," said Daniele, who officiated at the New Haven venue. "Now there are 102 countries playing. Of the 166 countries represented in the Games, having 102 of them playing bocce shows how this wonderful game has grown. "If every country brings two teams (four players) - and many countries will send more than two teams - there's going to be at least 400 players."

Not that Daniele and his fellow coaches from Springfield had to be told about the game they know as well as anyone, they nevertheless were required to review the rules and take an exam in preparation for their big assignment. There's more than a little irony that the rules and regulations of bocce are in Daniele's book, which was published in 1994.

Daniele estimates he has sold 1,000 books worldwide, and he probably has given away as many. "Ninety percent of these rules were the same ones they used in the Western Massachusetts Bocce League when it started- in, 1932," Daniele said. The scope of Daniele' love of bocce encompasses local, national and international growth, and he is undeniably the driving force behind the game he says has no. age, nationality or gender limitations. Like golf, Daniele said, bocce's a game for a lifetime. He is most proud of the two courts he helped establish at Forest Park. When the first -ball was rolled, it ended a nine-year effort to get them bunt. Courts have subsequently been installed at various clubs in Springfield, Wilbraham and in Troy, N.Y., and Chattanooga, Tenn., among other cities.

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