Throwing balls at a target is the oldest game known to mankind. As early as 5000 B.C., Egyptians played a form of bocce with polished rocks. Early Romans were among the first to play a game resembling what we know as bocce today. They first used coconuts brought back from Africa and later carved bocce balls from hard olive wood.

Bocce was a game my grandfather, my father and uncles played after Sunday dinner. They even let us kids and our moms have a go at the pallina (the little white target ball) at the end of their game. Even though it required little athletic prowess, it was a game of skill, focus, fun and teamwork. Bocce balls could be transported easily, and only a lawn was required to set up a bocce court at family get-togethers.

When I heard that a bocce league existed in DC and met on Capitol Hill, I was amazed. I couldn’t imagine where all of the old Italian men were from who must play on the league. To my surprise, not one elderly Italian from the old country was among the 550 players registered for the 2007 summer season. “On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, we come to Capitol Hill to have fun and celebrate our inner Italian,” says Sarah DeLucas, one of the founders of the DC bocce league.

When she moved to DC several years ago, Sarah joined a kickball team with friends. “I had fun, but it wasn’t the greatest thing ever,” she says. “But I realized DC was perfect for activities that young adults like to do after work.” One of her friends grew up playing bocce in Cleveland where there is a large Italian population. “He was really into it,” she says. “We scouted out the city for the best location. Garfield Park (at Second and F streets SE) was perfect. We were all living on the Hill so it was convenient, and we had no competition from other sports leagues.”

Fifty people registered for the 2003 inaugural season. The spring season runs from April through June, and the summer season runs from July through September. A season consists of five regular season games, two weeks of playoffs and the final championship game which is always played on a Saturday. The season ends, of course, with a party at The Pour House on Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the league’s sponsors. Miller Lite and Peroni Beer also sponsor the league.

By the 2007 spring season, registration sold out within 15 minutes. “Many regular players were miffed they didn’t get to registration on time and lost out,” says Sarah. To accommodate the popularity of the sport and the demands of bocce lovers, the league expanded play of its summer season to include Wednesday nights.

Anyone can play bocce. In fact, Sarah says, many who join the league have never played before. It seems that once you play, you’re hooked.

Emily, who is not Italian and had never played bocce before joining the league three seasons ago, says she loves the sport because you don’t have to be athletic to compete. “I’ll second that,” says Jeff, a novice at the sport.

Carey, who first played bocce in college, says she loves the game because, “you don’t have to put your beer down to play.”

One guy, who was getting ready to throw, told me he and his buddies drove into the city from Herndon where they live and work just to play. “It’s a bit of a drive, but it’s worth it. It gives us a good reason to leave work early and to hang out with people you don’t know.”

Some players have also found romance on the bocce courts. One woman met the man she is now dating two seasons ago. A former board member met his fiancée while playing bocce last year.

Eighty teams make up this year’s league. Team members are distinguishable by their colorful t-shirts. For example, the “Bocce Babes” in light-pink shirts challenge the “Three Italians and a Greek” team in light-grey shirts. The “Bocce Bocce Bang Bang” team wears pine-colored shirts, and the “Rigatones” don teal ones.

Membership in the league is $35 and includes equipment, team shirts and happy hour specials. Because it is set up as a nonprofit entity, the league makes a donation to a charitable organization – selected by the season’s winning team – at the end of each season. Past recipients include The American Red Cross, The Carpenter’s Shelter, Mary House and Women Empowered Against Violence.

One of the league’s projects this year is, in conjunction with the Garfield Park Association neighborhood group, to landscape the area around the courts. In 2005 the league fully funded and constructed two Bocce courts in Garfield Park, the only two in the city. The courts are available for public use except on nights when league teams are playing.

The game is also simple to learn. Each playing team must have a minimum of two players. Each team has four balls to play in each frame. There is a red team and a green team. The match begins with the flip of a coin between team captains. The winner of the coin flip may have the first toss of the pallina (small target ball), or choose the color of the balls. One frame consists of all eight balls and the pallina being thrown.

The object of the game is to get as many of your team’s balls closer to the pallina than the other team’s balls. Only one team scores per frame.

A regulation game is played to 16. The last team to score throws the pallina to begin the next frame.

Even though registration is closed for the summer, you can grab a blanket, pack a picnic and just hang out and watch. Throw out a pallina and become part of a distinguished history of players, such as Galileo, da Vinci and even George Washington, who, it was said, built a court at Mount Vernon in the 1780s. Enjoy the world’s oldest sport and next to soccer, the most popular game in the world.

To learn more about the DC bocce league, log onto www.dcbocce.com.