After an inaugural season in 2023-24 that was not what the team hoped for – zero wins, and three overtime sudden-death losses – Tyrone’s Unified Bocce Team came out strong this season, going 6-2 and qualifying for the playoffs for the first time.

“The season has gone phenomenal. I don’t think any of us expected this to happen. We took every day seriously. Every practice, we made sure that everyone truly understood the game and how to get extra points, and we just started winning, winning, winning,” said coach Sarah Davis.

Some highlights of this season included the program’s first win against Mount Union, their first home win in program history, a successful showing in the St. Francis Invitational tournament, and a Backyard Brawl win in front of the entire Bellwood student body.

The team did so well that they earned the first seed in the upcoming playoffs.

Tyrone will travel to Southern Huntingdon for the first round of the playoffs on Feb. 19 at 3:30 pm.

Fourth-seed Southern Huntingdon made the playoffs with a 2-4 record.

In the first match of the season, Tyrone split the first two games against Mount Union winning the first frame 7-6, but dropping the second 5-3. They ended up winning the match in the golden frame 1-0 on a roll by senior Mike Mingle.

“I’ll never forget the first game where we won and parents and everybody just stormed the court,” Davis said.

According to Davis and Latchford, the team has worked hard on strategy this season.

Each Special Olympics athlete is paired with a partner who helps them during practice and the competitions.

“The coaches actually can’t talk to the athletes, so us partners have to help the athletes out,” Sarah Dale said.

Their second match of the season did not count towards their record, but it was the biggest rivalry game of the year — the first-ever Bocce Backyard Brawl against Bellwood.

Tyrone’s offense was hot in the first frame which was only 15 minutes long in this game-winning 7-0. They were able to round out the victory beating Bellwood 3-1 in the second, winning the Backyard Brawl, and taking home the Backyard Brawl trophy for the first time.

“We were so happy when we won our away game, after that we got dinner and on the way home we just sang which was really fun, and we got to be one team,” Adien Zaker said.

The first-ever home win also happened this year, beating Huntingdon 9-4 in the first frame, and dominating in the second frame winning 13-4.

Tyrone’s first loss came against Tussey Mountain. They comfortably won the first frame 7-3, but got outplayed 10-3 and ended up losing the golden frame round 1-0.

The last game of the season went well in the first frame with Tyrone winning 11-2, but they were down 7 in the second frame on senior night. The team ended up winning 10-9 in the second frame.

If there is a Tyrone victory on Wednesday they will play either Mount Union, who went 5-3 and is a two-seed in the playoffs, or Tussy Moutian, who went 4-4 and is a three-seed.

“Our goal now is to win all the playoffs, win Hershey, win everything,” Cooper Spicer said.

This story was originally published on Tyrone Eagle Eye News on February 18, 2025.