Prince George Special Olympics athletes, three teams of four players, travelled to Burns Lake to compete in the Region 7 & 8 bocce competition along with teams from Quesnel and Smithers as well as the home team during the one-day event that took place on June 14.
Each team played three games, scoring three points for a win, two points for a tie and one point for a loss. The teams Sneak Attack and Grizzlies placed second and the Italian Stallions won first place in their divisions.
This was a great warm-up event for the Prince George bocce team Sneak Attack, who will be competing in the upcoming 2025 Special Olympics BC Summer Games being held in Prince George from July 10 to 12, Wilma VanHage said in a recent press release.
This will be the first time Prince George will have a Bocce team competing in the upcoming Summer Games, as bocce is a new sport for the Prince George Special Olympics organization, which offers programming to athletes year round.
“The bocce program is quickly growing in popularity among the Special Olympics athletes,” VanHage said.
“The program started in 2023 with Coach Waylon and eight athletes and has already doubled in size. The bocce teams have been training for many months, first indoors at the PGYSA indoor soccer facility throughout the winter and outdoors when the weather warmed up.”
Members of the Prince George teams include
- Sneak Attack: Ruth Caldwell, Tara Chiasson, Issac Goudal, Adrian Rosen
- Italian Stallions: Audrey Nelson, Marinka VanHage, Adam Spokes, Spencer Rourke
- Grizzlies: Angela Hills, Tyler Lefebvre, Cindy Komoski, Jordan Korum
For more information about the upcoming Special Olympics BC Summer Games visit www.specialolympics.ca/british-columbia/2025-sobc-summer-games.
