This article originally appeared in the August 2013 USBF Western Sector Newsletter.

This month’s column has some observations on the recently completed Nationals that took place in June in Stockton, CA. The results from the 2013 nationals were published in last month’s issue of this newsletter. Congratulations to all the medalists and participants! Below this column in the box are links to the archive list of medalists noted last month. The lists are now available at bocce.com and the links will take you there quickly. The lists have been updated to include results from the 2013 Nationals.
BEST OF THREE FINAL
One of the most interesting and yet disturbing situations oc-curred with the women’s final and the 21 and under final. In USBF National Tournaments in the past, players or teams advance from the round robin to a single elimination ladder with the final two players or teams playing a single game to determine the winner. This has been standard protocol at USBF National Tournaments and World Championships. The directors of the 2013 tournament decided to use two different formats to determine the three players who will rep-resent the United States at the World Singles Championship next year. The men’s division followed standard protocol and the winner of the final game was declared the champion. After reaching what would in the past be the final game, the 21 and under and the women’s divisions were required to enter best of three match play! This has never been done before in international or national championships and is not done in other sports.
One reason given was that the women did not play as many games as the men and the extra games were added so no one could get in with a “lucky shot” or other means. This made no sense as the men had four brackets of seven and each played six games in their round robin. The top two players went to the playoffs making an eight-team single elimination ladder. The women had two brackets of seven and each played six games in their round robin. The top four players went to the playoffs in an eight-team ladder. The men and women played the same number of games before reaching the final game! To add insult to injury, the tempera-ture was over 100 degrees. Also, in punto, raffa, volo, there are no “lucky shots.” All shots are called so the player would have to call her “lucky shot” in advance. Hitting the wrong ball would have resulted in the player’s opponent invoking the rule of advantage so the shooter could not benefit from the “lucky shot.” It would be a shame if this format will be used in the future. It discriminated against the women and 21 and under divisions by adding up to two extra games to determine a winner. All the players from the three divisions were trying to qualify for a spot on the same United States team so the format should have been identical for each divi-sion.
RAFFA SHOOTING CONTEST
One of the most entertaining and fun events was missing from these nationals. The raffa shooting event has a series of ten different targets at different locations on the court with the final target being a pallino at the far end of the court in the center. Each target has a value based on distance and degree of difficulty. For reasons unknown, this event was not held this year and was not held last year either. This event is always fun to watch and each hit brings cheers from the on-lookers. It is too bad that the players and spectators were deprived of the excitement of this event. There were six out-side-courts that could have been used for the event. Per-haps the Italia America Bocce Club of St. Louis will re-instate this event at the 2014 nationals.
LOSS OF VOLO
At the annual USBF board meeting the directors voted to no longer support the sport of volo. This a real shame because the founders of the USBF were volo players and volo was the original sport of the federation. There are sixty-five countries that belong to the governing body for volo, the FIB. There are thirty-eight countries that belong to the governing body for punto, raffa, volo, the CBI. As you can see, the sport of volo is much larger worldwide than raffa. Sadly, the USBF is no longer the governing body for all three styles of bocce in the United States.
We are happy to note that the dedicated volo players in the United States have banded together and have formed a new organization to represent the sport. They were in-formed in late July by Mr. Christian LaCoste, president of the FIB, that they have replaced the USBF as the governing body for volo in the United States. They will be sending a team in November to Bahia Blanca, Argentina to represent the Unites States at the 2013 Men’s World Championships. We should all wish these volo players the best of luck with their new organization and much success at the 2013 World Championships and in future tournaments!