SUBMITTED PHOTO - Darren and Aiden White take part in the kitchen bocce newspaper challenge with Medicine Hat Adaptive Sport and Recreation on Tuesday, April 28, 2020.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The COVID-19 pandemic has created countless challenges for sports organizations the world over, but Medicine Hat Adaptive Sport and Recreation has found a creative workaround to keep its bocce season alive.
MHASR lead program volunteer Tara Chisholm says all of her athletes have their own sets of bocce balls, so she’s been coming up with ways to keep them practising and competing with one another from the comfort of their respective homes.
“We’re calling it kitchen bocce. We’re doing a virtual league,” said Chisholm. “I send them out a practice plan every week, then they take part in the little practice piece of it and after that I have little challenges or competitions. But we Zoom call each other so we’re all doing it together at the same time. We’re still practising and competing because our sport thankfully is one you don’t need a field for.”
The team of around 10 got together Tuesday evening for a “newspaper challenge” through video chat. It may not be quite the same as playing on the same surface, but Chisholm says it’s a welcome consolation under such rare circumstances.
“It’s kind of neat because you can literally do it from anywhere,” she said, adding the newspaper challenge allows players to work on distance and accuracy in their shot. “You take a piece of old newspaper and you lay it down on the floor. Then you roll your ball, and if you get three out of four of your balls on the newspaper … you fold it in half and do it again. If you get three out of four, you fold it in half and do it again, until you get all the way down. Then you move your newspaper around so you can practice a different style of shot.”
Chisholm added they’ve been growing the online activity into a community by bringing a bocce club from Edmonton in on the fun, and she’s looking into expanding even further.Â
“We’ll see how it goes,” she said. “This is just our first trial run of it, then if it goes well -depending on restrictions and everything, if we still have to do this for a while – then we’ll hopefully be able to expand it. There are a couple of other groups in Strathmore and the Grande Prairie area that might join us.”
