Portable bocce courts support world-class athlete experience at USA Games

Portable courts from Packaworld set the scene for one of the United States’ best attended and highest profile bocce competitions last week when they were used to host the bocce event at the Special Olympics USA National Games.

More than 3,000 athletes, 11,500 coaches and volunteers and 75,000 fans descended on Minneapolis for the national games, which featured 16 different sports for individuals with intellectual disabilities, as well as unified partners.

The bocce event, hosted at the University of Minnesota’s Larson Performance Centre, saw more than 200 athletes vie for glory across singles, doubles, teams and unified categories.

This year’s USA national games bocce competition was the first to use portable Packabocce courts, which featured at the most recent Special Olympics World Games in Berlin and are now widely utilised at USA state level.

Alana Copeland, who had made the trip from Florida to help officiate the bocce event at the games, said the portable courts contributed to the spectacle.

“There’s no better court that I’ve ever used,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for over 21 years now and we’ve used a variety of types of courts on our venues and the ones that we’ve had from Packaworld are absolutely amazing.”

Among the delegations taking part was Maryland, which sent four athletes to the bocce competition. Melissa Anger, Maryland’s head of delegation, said the bocce event was one of the best she attended at this year’s games, and team’s athletes had outdone themselves.

All Maryland’s bocce athletes medalled within the first day of competition, which she put down to their hard work and the advantage of training on the Packabocce courts back in their home state in the lead-up to the national games.

“The athletes love them …. bocce is all about strategy so the courts help them to bounce off or roll it along the sides, and they do a great job with that.”

Anger is the Senior Director of High School Interscholastic Unified Sports in Maryland and commented that the courts had helped increase participation in Maryland schools and community programs.

“The portable Packabocce courts are so much easier to transport, that’s the biggest thing.

“Transporting the old ones, you had to get big trucks – they were heavy because they were 10- and 12-foot pipes. These are nice, they fit in bags on wheels, you can pack them up super easy and carry them along.”

Packaworld Chief Executive Peter Roberts made the trip to Minneapolis to enjoy the Games and said the spirit at the bocce event was among the best he had seen.

“This was a true celebration of inclusivity and sport. Athletes were giving it their all, organisers were on their game, and I was blown away by the positive impact the growth of unified bocce in US schools is having on so many players, as well as bocce participation.”

Packaworld launched its portable 60-foot by 12-foot Tournament Packabocce courts in 2013 to overcome issues of portability, transport and storage that arise with more traditional bocce courts made of wood or other heavy materials.

Their popularity has exploded in recent years and they have since been used at major Special Olympics competitions including the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin, Ontario Invitational Youth Games in Canada, Latin American Special Olympics Games, Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games, and many other national and state games globally.