Abigail Gerthoffer wasn’t sure what she was getting into when she joined Burrell High School’s unified bocce team during her sophomore year.
She just knew the team aligned with her values and personal mission to have a positive effect in the world.
With no prior experience playing bocce, Gerthoffer jumped into the experience two feet first.
She is a member of the district’s Bucco Buddies group, a program that helps introduce special education students to opportunities and activities that are generally more accessible to general education students, like her.
Unified bocce sounded like a similar opportunity. The popular game of rolling balls is easy to learn and not physically demanding to play, allowing people of all abilities to participate.
Fast-forward to this year and Gerthoffer, now a senior, holds her time on the team close to her heart.
“It’s one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had,” she said at the team’s senior night on Jan. 21. “It brings me so much joy.”
The team is part of the Special Olympics’ Unified Champion Schools program, which uses sports as a vehicle to help make schools more inclusive. More than 400 schools across the state are part of the program.
Participation has seen a large jump in recent years, from about 150 schools in 2020 to more than 400 in the 2025-26 bocce season.
As bocce is becoming more popular at schools across the state, people like John Swab, 63, of Greensburg, know the bocce love has run deep in southwestern Pennsylvania for generations.
Bocce is played on a long, narrow court with two teams using colored, commonly red and green, balls to roll, toss or bounce toward a smaller, usually yellow target ball called the pallina.
Blending generations
In 2015, Swab received a phone call from his longtime friend Ed Christofano to help set up a bocce court at the Youngwood Park N Pool, a popular park, pool and recreational facility in Youngwood.
Swab’s been involved in the Youngwood Bocce League ever since. He took over as chairman in 2019.
Swab said he couldn’t help but get swept up in the nostalgia as he watched Christofano form the league. As a child, he played an informal version of yard bocce with his father and uncles.
“I was familiar with the game,” Swab said about picking up the hobby. “I remembered it as a kid.”
With roots stretching back to the Roman Empire, bocce was founded in Italy and is a cornerstone of Italian culture and heritage.
At the turn of the 20th century, Italian immigrants brought the game with them to the United States.
As the Youngwood league expanded, Swab has watched generations come into the teams, including his own family. His three daughters — Samantha Rykala, Carissa Sanner and Tricia Swab — have joined his team. His sons-in-law have gotten involved, too, as one formed his own team within the league. Even his young grandchildren have started coming to watch the league’s games.
“They’re only 3 and 6 (years old),” Swab said. “They like to run around while we play.”
Swab said anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to join the league. The ages of current players range from mid-20s to late 70s.
The league had about 50 players during the 2025 season, Swab said. Participation in the league ebbs and flows each year.
Organizers including Swab depend heavily on word of mouth to recruit new players. Dues are $150 per team each year. The dues pay for the Park N Pool court rentals, food for game nights, and engraving the league’s championship trophy.
Bocce community
Whether it’s in a school gym or an outdoor park, bocce players speak of a tight-knit community built on the foundation of healthy competition.
“I’ve just gotten to know all these people,” Swab said. “It’s a social event. You want to win, but you get to catch up with everyone.”
Swab said the league meets each Tuesday night from mid-May through Labor Day. The matches can turn into more of a block party, as everyone brings food, chats and watches each other play.
Similar to Swab, Gerthoffer has made lasting connections through her bocce play at Burrell High School.
She has met some of her best friends on her school’s bocce team, she said. General education students on the unified teams are referred to as “partners” while the special needs students on the teams are referred to as “athletes.”
“(The team has) helped me form relationships I never thought I’d have,” Gerthoffer said.
The game-day environment is friendly, Gerthoffer said, and everyone cheers for everyone.
“Everyone leaves with a smile,” she said.
The team has become a personal oasis for her. As a partner, Gerthoffer said the athletes are there for her just as much as she is for them. She said she’s going to miss the athletes she met through Bucco Buddies and bonded with through bocce the most.
“They’ve grown to become my best friends,” Gerthoffer said. “They’re kind of my rock. They keep me afloat.”
Student progress
Miranda Frye is Penn-Trafford High School’s autistic support teacher and co-head coach of the school’s unified bocce team. She said the sport has been beneficial for general education and special education students alike.
“There’s a lot of students struggling to find their place,” Frye said. “The team helps them feel like less of an outsider. I think they don’t feel that as much anymore.”
Colleen Jones, Penn-Trafford High School emotional support teacher and co-head coach of unified bocce, said the team has 19 members — 10 athletes and nine partners. This is the third season the team has been active in the district.
The partners range from freshmen to seniors, and the athletes range from 15 to 20 years old.
Chelsey Kriley, Burrell’s special education teacher in the district’s intensive support classroom, has been the unified bocce head coach for two years. She sees the team as strongly promoting “self-advocacy,” the movement that champions a person’s ability to speak up for themselves, communicate their needs, and make choices that are best for themselves.
Kriley said she’s witnessed some of her special education students speak to referees and other players during matches, evidence of their growing confidence and a contrast to their general preference not to speak much.
Now in its fourth season, the team has 14 members, with an even split of athletes and partners.
Without any prior bocce experience, Kriley relied heavily on tips and training from Special Olympics.
Since coaches can’t speak with players during matches, she said, partners and athletes must communicate with each other to strategize their roles.
“They’re starting to become friends, which is really good to see,” Kriley said. “They don’t just talk to each during practice or games. They talk in the halls and during class.
“I feel like some of my students talk more. They’re trying to have conversations with their partners when they generally don’t go out of their way to speak with people.”
Transferable skills
Being on the unified team has helped Gerthoffer learn how to communicate effectively in high-tension situations.
“You really have to know who you’re talking to,” she said. “I’ve learned different coping skills for almost every situation.”
Gerthoffer said she is able to understand others’ perspectives and can navigate around different triggers that could cause one of the special education students distress.
“Everyone gets stressed,” she said. “Everyone has their moments, and you have to learn how to get around them.”
At Youngwood Bocce League, people of all levels of mobility play the game. Swab said the longstanding members try to teach newcomers to help them improve.
“Anybody can do it,” he said. “Really, anybody (can play). You don’t have to be athletic.”
Swab said competing looks different between teams in order to include all of their teammates.
One of the players in the league is recovering from a stroke that paralyzed his right side — a special challenge, as he’s right-handed. The man’s teammates help him stand and get to the proper spot, and he throws with his left hand.
Jones and Frye of Penn-Trafford wanted to incorporate unified bocce in order to get the school district more involved in Special Olympics.
“We started with bocce because we had smaller numbers, and it was a new sport for the school,” Frye said.
Jones and Frye had to get creative when starting the unified bocce team at Penn-Trafford. Like Kriley, neither had experience playing bocce. They depended on Special Olympic training to learn the ropes.
Playing was one thing, but recruitment was a different beast.
“It was important to find a base of kids who were interested in changing the culture of the school,” Frye said.
When a schoolwide email didn’t get many responses, the two teachers set up a bocce game in the high school cafeteria during lunch. Jones said recruitment went up to eight that year.
At this point, they’ve had to turn some students away because members were enough to fill two teams and alternates.
“I think a big piece (of progress) is (members’) interactions in the buildings,” Jones said. “They have conversations with each other in the halls and class. They’ve hosted fundraisers and include the student body. It was hard for the first group to do this because sometimes the student body isn’t always receptive to something new or different.”
The biggest takeaway may be that the game has been able to close gaps between people who otherwise might have remained closed-off.
“I wish more people would get involved in stuff like this,” Gerthoffer said. “Even if it doesn’t benefit you, it will benefit someone else. That’s why something like this was created. Things like this can change the world in a positive way.”