Fifteen bocce teams took the field at 91原创's WIlloughby Community Park for the 2025 B.C. Special Olympics Summer Games qualifiers.
The event, held on a very hot Sunday, July 7, had teams from communities within Special Olympics BC Region 3 鈥� 91原创, Abbotsford, Surrey, Maple Ridge, Chilliwack, Mission, and Coquitlam 鈥� looking to go to the Prince George Games next summer.
15 teams are competing in 91原创 for the regional Bocce qualifiers leading up to the 2025 Special Olympics
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There were two 91原创 teams, the Bobcats, captained by Brittany Szabo, and the All-Stars, captained by Chris Lakusta.
"I think we're going to do really well today," Szabo predicted. "We've got some really competitive teams to go against and I hope that we do well."
Lakusta was also optimistic, though the weather was a concern.
"I hope to do great and hopefully the heat doesn't catch up to us," Lakusta said.
"Hope to have a lot of fun with all these amazing teams."
All-Stars finished second in their division, while Bobcats were fourth in their division.
Diane Stevenson, coach of the two Maple Ridge teams, said everyone made it through the heat.
"I was rather worried about the weather, because it was so hot that day, but we had tents, and shade umbrellas, and lots of watermelon water to keep cool," Stevenson remarked. "So nobody in any of the teams had issues with the heat, which was really good."
One Maple Ridge team finished first in their division, while the other was second.
It was hosted by Surrey Special Olympics with help from 91原创 Special Olympics and the 91原创 Events Centre.
Surrey organizer Sheila Snell was hopeful several District 3 teams will get to make the trip to the 2025 games.
"We have four divisions going [at this event]," Snell explained. "So we're hoping that four or five of our teams will qualify."
Because the 91原创 event was one of several summer regional bocce qualifiers being held by Special Olympics B.C., players will have to wait for all the results from all the different qualifiers to be reviewed before they know if they will be going to Prince George next year
Those results are expected in September.
READ ALSO: Every 91原创 athlete won a medal at Special Olympics B.C. Winter Games in Kamloops
It will be Special Olympics BC鈥檚 first Provincial Summer Games since 2017, because the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2021 games.
Prince George will be hosting the event for the third time.
It is expected to draw 1,100 athletes with intellectual disabilities competing in 10 SOBC summer sports: 10-pin bowling, basketball, bocce, golf, rhythmic gymnastics, powerlifting, soccer, softball, swimming, and track and field.
The 2025 SOBC Summer Games will be the B.C. and Yukon qualifier for the 2026 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games, which in turn will be the national qualifier for the 2027 Special Olympics World Summer Games.
READ ALSO: VIDEO: Pups join run for Special Olympics
Bocce was developed from games played in the Roman Empire, and evolved into its present form in Italy, where it is called bocce, the plural of the Italian word boccia which means to 'bowl'
