On February 14, the Linganore (LHS) Unified Bocce team went to the Interscholastic Unified Indoor Bocce State Tournament where they played in Division Rome against three other schools from Maryland to compete for the state champion title. For the first time ever in Linganore history, the team won the state championship title.
The state championship tournament took place in the Hagerstown Community College gymnasium. The Lancer team played three games which were 30 minutes long. They won their first match against Carver Vocational Technical High School 7-3. The second match against Clear Springs High School was 9-3. The final match against Surrattsville High School was won 6-2.
The matches are played in a bracket format, meaning every time the Lancers won, they moved onto the next match, which in the end led to the final state championship game in their category.
The game consists of eight balls. Each team has four balls, and the main goal of each team is to roll their ball closest to the pallino, which is a small white ball rolled onto the court. This makes bocce different from other sports in that it has to be meticulously judged to determine how close each teams’ ball is to the pallino, and it requires not only strategy but precision from the player. Sometimes, they even break out a measuring tape. If the player gets a ball to touch the pallino, it is two points. If the team gets a ball near the pallino it is one point.
The LHS team consists of 37 players, who spent the season working tirelessly to have a successful turn out at states.
Keira Knedeisen, a junior on the team, said, “My favorite part of being on the Bocce team is running the Instagram account; so, my favorite part is getting to take pictures of my teammates and friends and getting to put them on Instagram for everyone to see.”
Knedeisen believes unified sports are important for a number of reasons.
“Unified sports are important because it gives the unified students and the athletes something to be proud of and participate in,” Knedeison said.” It also gives them opportunities to meet people, learn new skills and gain freedom and independence and freedom to do something they all enjoy together.”
Linganore junior Tyler Hess described the monumental experience of playing in the state championship as a first-year player.
“During the final game, one of the highlights was this impressive knock,” Hess said. “The other team was about to score two or three points, and then we knocked all the balls away.”
After one year of playing on the team, Hess describes Bocce as “an exciting sport where you can make friends, have fun and try new things.”
Linganore junior Caden Vogel also played on the championship winning team. He described the practices leading up to the states match.
“They [practices] were very intense,” Vogel said. “They had us doing easy drills that create impressive results. It was an exciting atmosphere for the big event, and there’s a lot of strategy and team meetings that we had to prepare us for our games.”
The game ended with an awards ceremony presenting the Lancers with gold medals. Their hard work paid off for a successful season making LHS history.
