Bentley Village’s underdog bocce run ends in Final Four loss

ESTERO, Fla. (WINK) — The Vi at Bentley Village’s unlikely postseason run came to an end Friday, but not before the senior squad turned a low seed into one of the biggest surprises in the Southwest Florida Bocce League.

As the No. 15 seed, it reached the league’s Final Four before falling in the championship round at Spring Run. For a team that 91-year-old player Jerry Weiss said had spent years near the bottom of the standings, the finish still marked a breakthrough season.

“We’ve always been bottom dwellers,” Weiss said. “out of the 24, we’re usually 22 or 23.”

The team’s turnaround came after Bentley Village set a modest goal entering the season: finish in the top 16 and qualify for the playoffs.

Team captain Dawn Rizzo said that after ending last season in 22nd place, the group “kind of trimmed down the squad a little” and got more serious about improving. The difference, Rizzo said, came down to one thing: “Practice, practice, practice. And that’s what they started doing. They started practicing and developing some pretty good players.”

That extra work helped push Bentley Village all the way to the Final Four.

“It’s been amazing,” Weiss said. He credited Rizzo with bringing “a lot of enthusiasm” and helping motivate the team to improve its skill level.

For Weiss, just reaching the final stage of the tournament was already a victory.

“And we’ve already won,” he said. “Just by being in the finals, we’ve won, but we’re looking forward to doing as well as we can here.”

Bentley Village did not leave with a championship, but the team still finished with its deepest postseason run yet after spending years simply playing for fun.

“For 10 years, we’ve been playing bocce because it’s fun,” Weiss said. “Now we’re playing bocce to win.”

The team from the Quarry community won the championship.