Over the years I’ve come to love the sport of Boccia, the paralympic version of Bocce. (The history of bocce/boccia dates back 5000 years—it was played in ancient Egypt with polished stones and spread throughout the Roman Empire by the Greeks. Boccia was introduced for people with cerebral palsy and had its paralympic debut in 1984 in New York.[1]) During the week of July 28, USA Boccia held its 10th anniversary national tournament at Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama. I was chosen to be trained as a referee, accepting this with some apprehension as to whether I could actually learn all of the rules.
I first learned about Boccia, pronounced bacha, when I worked for Bridge II Sports in Raleigh-Durham in 2018. Initially I thought of the sport as just throwing some balls and this was reinforced by the children that I was working with. Due to my limited understanding—and working with mostly young boys who would pick up the balls and throw them as hard as they could across the room that we were in—my thought was, “what’s the point?” But when I started working with a person whose disability was a bit more severe and needed a ramp to “throw,” I thought that maybe there was something more to this. This continued as I observed others who were focused on getting to nationals. (One of the athletes that attended nationals was someone that I had worked with while at Bridge II Sports.)
When I moved back to California in 2019, I thought that I could bring the sport here. I still had a very rudimentary understanding and couldn’t really find others who would meet the qualifications to participate at a paralympic level. This became more about providing the sport recreationally.
Working with people with developmental disabilities, with Alzheimer’s, and seniors, and making it part of SoCal Adaptive ‘s school program, Sports for everyBODY, boccia was added to the many other sports that I coached. We didn’t really pay attention to rules since it was more about just having fun. Nevertheless, the people that we were working with really enjoyed playing.
In California I had been offering boccia at numerous Adapted Sport Fairs, working to recruit athletes and start a consistent program adhering to the rules. Working with USA Boccia we held something more resembling the sport at Santa Ana College in 2023. The USA Boccia officials provided me with some training, but it didn’t stick since we had no consistent place to play. In February 2025 I was part of an adapted sport fair for victims of gun violence and met people who really wanted to play consistently. Finally, in July 2025, SoCal Adaptive Sports started partnering with the City of Burbank and now offers boccia every Sunday.
This brought me to USA Boccia Nationals the last week of July. There were seven of us in the referee training with two of us being very new. Over the course of a few days we were focused on the rules, took a written test, and then observed and refereed a number of matches. But as with any sport there is a lot more to it, e.g. do the balls meet standards, do they roll, are they the correct size—just to name a few of the many aspects of the official game.
For me, seeing the diversity of athletes, who through casual observation, one might say, there is no way that they can play, really helped me to understand the competitive nature and skill needed to perform at a high level. Throughout the tournament (even though it was livestreamed), I kept thinking to myself that if more people watched these athletes, they would totally change their perceptions of people’s capabilities and abilities. One can see the athleticism of those playing wheelchair basketball or tennis, but boccia truly shows that anybody can play and compete at the highest levels in sport.
One of the athletes that I met in February and introduced the sport to was a man named Roger. He uses a power chair due to limited mobility. As with everyone I approach I ask, “have you ever played adapted sports?” For Roger this was his first time playing boccia and he was hooked. Roger took a train from California to Birmingham and back again to compete in nationals. (This took him three days each way.) Like others in the BC-3 classification, Roger uses a ramp and an assistant in order to play.
I love getting to know people and their stories which naturally creates deeper connections. I was able to get to know numerous athletes and observe their determination through being a ref, linesperson, and also as a spectator.
The determination of the athletes is something that had a major impact on me. There was one athlete who would bring the ball up to throw, and then hold the ball at the top of his extended arm until he could finally release it. For me throwing a ball, which I’ve done my entire life, is something that I take for granted. But for this athlete being able to release the ball took so much effort—but when he threw it, it landed where he wanted it to. There were those in the BC-3 classification who might use a head pointer and ramp to “throw” the ball. There was even an athlete who used his feet to throw. As an able-bodied person observing these athletes, it helps guide my thinking as to how we must make the world more accessible.
The amount of strategy involved in boccia is no different than any other sport. I saw this whether there were individuals competing against one another or in pairs or teams. Knowing which ball to use and how hard and where to throw it is a vital part of the game. Boccia is no less difficult than any other sport once one learns how to properly play.
Working in adapted sports since 2011, when I was living in India and learned about wheelchair basketball, has taken me to many places and increased my knowledge as to what is possible. I see boccia as the sport that truly invites everybody to play. I believe that boccia is one sport that can bring about societal inclusion, eliminating barriers so that everybody can play.
