Bocce has become so popular at the Special Olympics Maine State Summer Games that organizers needed more space for courts at the University of Maine.

As the summer games got underway on campus in Orono on Friday, bocce competitors could be found both inside UMaine’s Mahaney Dome and outdoors on a nearby athletic field.

The dome was no longer enough space on its own for the roughly 120 teams, Special Olympics Maine bocce director Scott Gregory said.

“It’s grown dramatically, and that’s one of the reasons that we have two venues because we just couldn’t accommodate everybody in one spot,” said Gregory, who noted that there were closer to 65 or 70 teams years ago when the bocce competition first started in the dome.

Traditional Special Olympics bocce was being featured inside the dome wit

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