Willoughby Hills resident Dominic Olivo remembers well his days growing up in the Cleveland neighborhood around East 110th Street and Woodland Avenue.

It was one of what Olivo called three “great” Italian neighborhoods in those days, which the 72-year-old said also included Little Italy and Collinwood.

“When I was a kid, we used to have neighborhood picnics,” he said. “They played bocce, but in those days it was on the grass. They didn’t have these courts.”

The courts Olivo was referring to were those at the Wickliffe Italian-American Club, where on Sunday afternoon he was watching the 2008 Pat O’Brien Chevrolet Cleveland Challenge Cup of Bocce, which celebrated its 25th year.

Olivo has been attending the tournament for about 20 of those years, he said, adding that each time he watches the bocce being played and hears visitors speaking to each other in Italian, he remembers days gone by.

“It reminds me of my childhood,” he said. “I come to this and it’s similar (to the neighborhood picnics).”

That’s exactly the kind of tradition tournament organizers said they enjoy as they celebrate the event’s landmark anniversary.

With the addition this year of the Italian Cultural Tent, which featured cooking demonstrations, wine-making workshops and presentations on traditional Italian dancing and singing, what once was just a bocce tournament has evolved into something much more.

“We’ve tried to create more of a cultural effect,” said Tony Continenza, a tournament organizer for eight years. “We’re trying to maintain and promote our heritage and culture.”

That’s only one way in which the tournament has grown, however. There were only 16 teams the first year, Continenza said, while this year there were 78 and in years past as many as 84.

Proportionately, the size of the tournament venue also has grown to now include seven bocce courts, six of which are covered.

“(Before) we had nothing — a few courts, no covers and no fences,” Wickliffe Italian-American Club President Gino Latessa said. “With the time we’ve spent together as a club, these are the improvements we’ve made over the last 14 years.

“It was a vision we all had, and now it’s a reality,” he said.

This year, that vision led to an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 people attending the event, with teams from across Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan and Canada competing in the three-day tournament.

“I’ve been coming here for the last 15 years,” said Joe Sicoli, 60, of Woodbridge, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.

“I think it improves every year. The people we find are warmer every year.”

On Sicoli’s Rainbow Creek team — a seven-time tournament champion — was first-time attendee Adriano Stillo.

“It’s a great venue, and there’s a lot of camaraderie here,” the 42-year-old Woodbridge resident said. “The joy of it is there’s a lot of young people participating.”

As Latessa and Continenza consider the tournament’s next 25 years, they’ll be counting on those young people to carry on the event’s traditions.

“Let’s see, 25 years from now I’ll be 87 and Tony will be 71, so we’re going to pass it down to our children,” Latessa said with a smile.

Continenza’s 17-year-old son, Salvatore, said he’s been helping with the tournament since he was 8 years old.

“You don’t really see this anywhere else,” the Wickliffe High School senior said. “Everyone’s like a big family down here.”

Already a member of the Italian-American Club’s youth group, Salvatore said he’s looking forward to his role in the bocce tournament’s next 25 years.

“I’m just hoping I can follow in their footsteps. ... I hope I can meet their standards,” he said, referring to his father and other event organizers.

Rochester team defends its bocce championship

The Rochester team, from Rochester, N.Y., defended its bocce championship when it came back to win the 2008 Pat O’Brien Chevrolet Cleveland Challenge Cup of Bocce Sunday night at the Wickliffe Italian-American Club.

After suffering a semifinal round defeat at the hands of the DaVinci Club team, from Sylvan Lake, Mich., the Rochester team worked its way through the losers bracket to again face the DaVinci Club.

The Rochester team proved victorious the second time, winning a trophy and taking home the $5,000 grand prize.

Also of note was that the host city for the first time had a top-10 finisher when Kraft Builders LLC, an all-Wickliffe team, won the honor.

The Dirt Dogs, a team from Michigan, won the bocce tournament’s first cornhole tournament, in which 64 teams competed.

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