BocceFest 2016 Summary
It’s truly hard to believe that we have just completed hosting our 13th year of BocceFest. It was a year that brought another cause near and dear to our hearts to the forefront of BocceFest in addition to all the food, fun, friends, and family that are the hallmarks of our annual tournament.
In prior years, we have benefited some amazing causes including Fisher House and the National Brain Tumor Society. This year we were truly amazed and humbled by the outpouring of love and support as our event benefited the medical fund for our niece Claire Brown as she battles cancer. As of this writing, we have raised in excess of $2000 dollars more than quadrupling any prior years’ fundraising. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
BocceFest wouldn’t be possible without the support of our amazing friends and family. There are so many people to thank this year from our volunteers who help with setup to our sponsors to the many helping hands with setup, food preparation, tournament day logistics, and breakdown! It was a truly memorable year! We’d especially like to highlight our sponsors and vendors this year including J&N Vinyl who made the cozies, SpeedPro Imaging of Annapolis for our signage, Banditos Bar & Kitchen and Wayward Southern Bar and Kitchen for our kegs, SnapGiggle Photography by Dawn Elliott for photography, and Go Melvo SnoBalls of Severna Park for our amazing snowballs!
From a tournament perspective, our championship team this year was #4 seed Nerd Ballers with Sarah and Tony Fuda. Sarah and Tony were runners up in last year’s tournament and came back this year to clinch the win. Congratulations Sarah and Tony!
In keeping with adding new and interesting things to BocceFest each year, we live streamed the event this year using Twitch.tv also live-streamed the final rounds via Facebook. It was truly fun to watch the running commentary from folks around the country and world as the teams competed for the top trophy! We also introduced our first BocceFest Chili Cook-off with five entries. Our winning Chili Team was Dan Petrowski and Tim Armstrong (Team Buck Focce) whose entry fee for BocceFest 2017 will be waived as the winners along with bragging rights of course! We expect to continue this tradition next year, so get your chili recipes ready!
And now for BocceFest by the numbers! This year our 52 teams played a total of 105 games over 11 hours. Our total estimated attendance was 175 people coming in second highest in overall attendance since BocceFest began. The final ranking of all teams is attached to this email.
52 Total teams for 2016 (Tied second highest attendance)
29 Teams previously played together.
20 Returning teams from 2015 (Down from 29 in 2015)
14 Teams with at least one player with previous experience
13 Total number of pools (Down from 14 in 2015)
10 Number of teams with completely new players (Rookies)
5 Players who have won a tournament title
2 Teams playing who have won at least one championship
Fastest Pool Game: BeanerSchnitzels vs Mrs. Glinkalucci (12-0), 5F, 12m 27s
Longest Pool Game: Nerd Ballers vs. Team Akevitt (11-1), 6F, 55m 43s
Average Pool Game: 10F, 30m 23s
Fastest Tournament Game: Nerd Ballers vs. BeanerSchnitzels (13-4), 7F, 16m 17s
Longest Tournament Game: Boccemon Go vs Bella Bocce (13-7), 13F, 57m 16s
Average Tournament Game Time: 13F, 36m 55s
Most/Least Played Court: 4 :12 Games / 10 : 8 Games
One final call out for our attendees this year is our rankings for Best BocceFest Team name. This years recognition goes to the following teams:
First Place: Boccemon Go – Mike and Jacob de Frees
Second Place: Bocce Balboa – Abe Veppumthara and Priya Kuppusamy
Third Place: Nobody Puts Bocce in a Corner – Cori Bereznay and Amanda Sadeghin
Honorable Mention: Came in Like A Bocce Ball – Miyun Kim and Joshua Wilshere
We are already so very excited talking about next year and can’t wait to see everyone in 2017!
With our humble gratitude,
Cory & Aimee Cubbage
